Tomorrow is Promised to No One
by MrZ1289
Summary: Harry had never considered what he would do next. Everything had always been focused on Voldemort. With him out of the way, Harry is given an opportunity to live the life he was never allowed to have, one free from death and mayhem. But while Voldemort may be dead, the past and his followers don't die so easily.
1. One

When Harry opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was confusion. For months, the first thing he had seen when he opened his eyes was the top bunk sitting above his head, typically with the bump from where Hermione was laying.

This time, however, there was no bunk. There wasn't even a tent.

But there was a four poster bed.

Somehow, he was back at Hogwarts.

For several seconds, Harry racked his brain, attempting to remember how he had gotten back to the castle. Then, it all came back to him.

Gringotts.

Hogsmeade and Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.

The Room of Requirement.

One by one, everything about The Battle came back to him, flooding his mind with horrific visions of violence and death. But then the final sequence of the previous day came back to him: The Forest and then Riddle's death in the Great Hall.

Tom Riddle was dead.

Riddle was dead? In his mind, Harry couldn't reconcile that particular set of words. How was that even possible?

For years, Tom Riddle had been the spectre that had (quite literally) haunted his dreams. Visions of Voldemort's mind had infected his sleep for years, certainly aging him more than any other seventeen year old he knew.

A smile crept to Harry's face as he thought about The Elder Wand rejecting Voldemort, flying through the air to Harry as the light left Riddle's eyes.

But then Harry remembered the scene in the Great Hall during the Battle. The bodies that had lined the room included some of his closest family members.

A lump formed in his throat as he remembered the explosion that had killed Fred.

The image of Percy, only recently reconnected with his family, holding the body of his dead brother, sobbing, screaming his name as he begged for his brother to get up and walk.

Harry remembered the sight of Colin Creevey's body being carried back to The Great Hall from somewhere in the castle, killed in a battle that he shouldn't have even been fighting in the first place.

But the last image was the one that caused Harry to sit up, the hands of Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, just inches away from each other as they lie dead in the Great Hall. Teddy Lupin was only months old. Now, he would live the rest of his life without them, never personally knowing the love of his parents.

Still, Harry was determined that Teddy would not end up like Harry. Even if it meant taking in the infant himself, Harry would ensure that Teddy ended up in a good home with people that loved him, something he was certain Andromeda would be more than happy to provide.

The first thing Harry noticed as his feet touched the floor just outside his four poster bed in Gryffindor Tower was just how quiet it was in the castle. Looking outside he noticed that it was dark, which didn't make any sense considering Harry had laid down in his bed just moments after sunrise.

But as Harry looked up at the clock in the corner of the room, he was able to see that it was just after two in the morning. In his mind, Harry did the math and realized that he must have been asleep for roughly twenty hours.

Considering the events and the physical toll the Battle had taken on him, he couldn't say that he was surprised. Harry noticed that his school trunk was at the end of the bed.

"Kreacher must have brought it." Harry whispered to himself.

Grabbing some new clothes, Harry made his way to the showers. While the tent had been equipped with a bathroom, there was something different about knowing that he no longer had to live in a tent that made him feel cleaner than he'd ever been in his entire life. When he was finished, he made his way down to The Common Room. Typically, at this time of night, the Common Room would be empty. But tonight wasn't a typical night. Most of the Weasley family laid on a cot, couch or chair somewhere in the room.

Bill and Fleur lay tightly together on the couch while Percy slept next to them in one of the large chairs by the fireplace. Ginny slept on the floor below them.

Across the room, Charlie rested on a cot while Molly and Arthur slept on chairs just above him. Harry didn't see Ron or Hermione but he assumed that they were upstairs in the girls dormitory. After years of hiding their feelings for each other, Harry was glad that they were able to be honest with each other.

To be honest, Harry wasn't certain that it would work out between the two of them. Still, he was glad they seemed to be giving it a shot.

Of all the red-headed clan, the only family member that Harry couldn't locate was George, which didn't surprise him in the least.

Sneaking passed the Weasleys, Harry made his way out of the portrait hole and into the castle proper. Immediately, Harry noticed something was wrong. The castle had always been drafty.

It was a castle, after all.

But this was different. This wasn't just some moving air. This was the wind, full and flowing through the castle. As Harry approached the main staircase that lead down to the Entrance Hall, the problem became apparent.

Almost the entire front wall of the school was gone.

During the chaos of the night before, Harry hadn't noticed just how damaged the ancient structure was but now that he could move about freely without worrying about being killed, he was astonished that the castle was still standing.

The explosion that had killed Fred Weasley had removed a large portion of that front wall, blowing the front doors entirely off their hinges. From where Harry was standing, seven floors above the ground floor, Harry could see the doors lying several feet in front of where they should have been. Tons of rubble sat in organized piles around where the wall would have been. It was clear that someone had already been organizing some sort of cleanup effort.

As Harry descended the stairs, he was struck by just how much damage had been done to the castle. It was hardly recognizable. Doors blown to pieces, some of them missing entirely. When Harry reached the fourth floor, he noticed that one of the hallways just off the main landing was completely caved in.

Thankfully, no students lived in that area of the castle which meant that most of the fighting should have stayed away from this area. It was likely that it was simply a result of The Death Eater's initial assault on the castle, thousands of spells volleyed towards the castle all at once causing devastation on a scale that Harry was relatively certain the castle had never seen.

Of course, he would have to check with Hermione to determine whether or not his notion was entirely true.

The closer to the bottom of the stairs Harry got, the more obvious signs of battle there were. The most obvious were the bloodstains that still had not been cleared away. Dozens of puddles where people had died. Whether they belonged to The Death Eaters, Dumbledore's Army or The Order of the Phoenix, death had come to everyone at some point in the night.

Even those that remained living would be affected by the amount of death and destruction they witnessed for the rest of their lives.

Of that, Harry was certain.

When Harry reached what remained of the Entrance Hall, Harry realized that the Entrance Hall and Great Hall were now effectively one large room. The wall that had previously separated the two Halls was now in pieces, large boulders of rubble resting where the wall used to be. This meant that when he reached the ground floor, Harry could see from the base of the stairs all the way to the Head Table of the Great Hall.

Or what was left of it.

Harry walked into the Great Hall and noticed that almost nothing remained intact. The house tables were gone, likely used as weapons or shields. The head table was split in half with massive chunks of the table removed. Even the roof, once magically reflecting the sky above, was mostly gone with holes that let just the barest amount of light from stars outside. The charm of the ceiling was gone.

Now, it was just any other ceiling, albeit one that looked like it had been damaged beyond repair.

For some reason, Harry had expected the dead to still be resting in the Great Hall, like they were when Harry had been here last. It took a moment to jog Harry's mind, and to remind himself that he had, in fact, been in this room again during his battle with Riddle.

Obviously, the deceased had been removed from the Great Hall sometime between his last visit with the Weasleys and his duel with Riddle.

Harry was just about to leave when he noticed someone sitting on the far end of the room. It was Dedalus Diggle, one of the first members of the Order of the Phoenix that Harry had ever met. He had once bowed to Harry at a store in London, years before Harry had known about magic or Hogwarts or the real reason his parents had died.

Harry also became aware of the fact that Dedalus was awake, a strange thing considering the time of night. That was when Harry became aware of the door next to Dedalus. He had only been in that room one time after he had been selected as the Fourth Champion in the Triwizard Tournament. If Harry remembered correctly, the room wasn't that large but there had been a roaring fire going that day that had made it almost unbearably hot.

Of course, that may have been because of the stress of the meeting that took place between Barty Crouch Sr, Ludo Bagman and the leaders of the Triwizard schools.

As Harry approached Dedalus, he sat upright in his chair as if Merlin himself approached. Harry turned around to see who was behind him and saw no one. That's when Harry realized that it was Harry himself who had caused that reaction.

"Mr. Potter, sir, I didn't expect you to be awake at this time of night." Dedalus muttered, quite literally averting his eyes from Harry's gaze.

A small part of Harry became aware of the fact that this would be how hundreds of people would treat him for the rest of his life. Harry rolled his eyes and pressed onward.

"Dedalus, what are you doing here?"

"I'm guarding the door on Professor McGonagall's orders, sir."

"What's in there?"

" _Him."_

For a moment, Harry wasn't certain what he meant. Then, it dawned on him.

It was Riddle. Or rather, his body. Dedalus was guarding Riddle's corpse.

In all the time that Harry had been working to defeat Voldemort, he had never once stopped to consider what would happen if Voldemort could actually be defeated. Would he even die like a regular person would? Would he disintegrate into a thousand different pieces, the wind taking his body apart bit by bit? Would he burst into flames or freeze and break apart?

All told, it was reassuring that, in the end, Tom Marvolo Riddle was just like the rest of them. He may have been a vile, horrible, disgusting excuse for a human being but despite his efforts, he remained one until the end.

The knowledge that Riddle's body lay just a few feet away piqued his curiosity.

"Can I go in?" Harry inquired.

"I'm not certain. Professor McGonagall told me not to let anyone in." Dedalus replied, a nervous look in his eyes as if McGonagall was going to appear out of nowhere.

Although, considering the fact that she could turn into a cat, that wasn't an entirely unwarranted concern.

"Dedalus, I need to see it." Harry said, his voice breaking slightly. While curiosity had been the main reason for Harry's original request, he had also come to the realization that he still didn't truly believe Riddle was dead. Riddle was certainly dead. Harry had watched it happen. But, the closure of seeing his corpse was something that Harry needed.

The relief that Harry had felt only a few minutes earlier was gone. It had been replaced by an agitation, a feeling of anxiety that Harry had only associated with the presence of Lord Voldemort. It was something that he couldn't explain. Very few people had been in the direct path of pure evil as often as Harry had.

"I need to know that he's gone." Harry explained further. "I need to know that this isn't some sort of trick. He's not going to come back as some sort of ghost, only to gain a body again in fifteen years. I need to know."

Dedalus didn't reply immediately. When he did, he didn't speak. He simply nodded and then opened the door behind him, allowing Harry to go past him.

Taking a deep breath, Harry moved passed Dedalus and through the door. Harry's imagination hadn't lead him astray. The room looked exactly as he had remembered.

With one exception.

In the center of the room, a table had been placed. On the table, for all the world to see, was the body of He Who Must Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort, The Dark Lord.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

It was a testament to just how powerful a man he had been because without the energy and charisma he had exuded for years, Harry became immediately aware of just how frail the body on the table looked.

His arms were effectively skin and bone, nothing more. The robes that he had worn had always hung off his body, pooling at his feet. But now, they hung to the side of the table, flowing all the way down to the floor.

Seeing this, Harry was reminded that Voldemort was over seventy years old when he had died, something that seemed strange considering the ageless, almost zombie-like nature of his body.

Harry gently approached the table, ending up at Riddle's feet, looking out over the corpse of his greatest enemy.

Suddenly, Harry felt a fire build in his chest, a burning hatred that needed to be released.

"I've seen what you are now, Tom. That... _thing._ That's all that's left of you." Harry whispered, his voice barely carrying beyond his own ears. "You spent fifty years trying to obtain immortality. Now, you'll spend eternity as something _less."_

Harry could hear the bitterness in his voice. He knew that there were some who would think less of him, to hear him taunting a dead man. But at that moment, he simply did not care. Molly Weasley herself could have walked in the room and Harry would have continued until his catharsis was complete.

Well, as complete as it could be for that night.

"All those years, all that talent wasted destroying the world." Harry scowled. "Was it worth it in the end? Were the deaths of my parents worth it? Were the hundreds of deaths that are on your hands worth it?"

Feeling the fire inside him bubble to the surface, Harry reached forward and slapped one of Riddle's legs, tossing it from the table, letting it hang off the edge.

"Get up, Tom." Harry growled. "Get up, you half-blood, lying sack of human filth. You preached and pontificated on your Pureblood ideals, tearing the world in two in the process and you aren't even a Pureblood!"

Harry's voice had grown, surely carrying far beyond the chamber in which he stood. Whatever Dedalus thought outside, he did not know for the door to the room remained closed.

"In the end, you were defeated by half-bloods, Muggleborns and blood traitors: all the people that you trained the world to hate. There's an irony to that. It wasn't the Purebloods that took you down, those that you professed were the only one to whom our society belonged. No, instead it was those you thought these least of. It was your arrogance that undid you. Your belief that only you held the keys to the future of magic. But at every step, you proved yourself wrong and you couldn't see it. You couldn't see that the stars were aligning to bring you down. You couldn't have fathomed it."

Reaching into his back pocket, Harry withdrew The Elder Wand and considered it in front of him.

"You thought this would defeat me. You got so desperate to kill a seventeen year old boy that you followed myth and legend in search of an object that almost no one knows exists. But you failed to understand just what this wand is. You thought that this wand was special. Certainly, it's capable of magic that other wands can't perform but its nature is the same. It doesn't care that you were Lord Voldemort and it doesn't care that I'm Harry Potter. The only thing it cared about was who had won it. It didn't have to be a murder. That's another failure, Tom, assuming that murder is the only way to gain power."

Finally, the fire that threatened to swallow Harry sparked forward. Harry drew his wand and aimed it at Riddle's remains, silently setting the corpse ablaze.

"You deserve to burn for what you've done. Your sins are too numerous to count. You've separated families, murdered sons and daughters and slaughtered their parents. You did all of this in the name of hatred and destruction, all the while seeking power that you shared with no one. So, you'll burn. You'll burn until there's nothing left of you. I'll spend the rest of my life undoing your legacy until there's nothing left of you but memory. Over time, that will fade too and the legacy of Tom Riddle will simply be to be forgotten."

With a flick, Harry cast The Elder Wand into the flames. It took only seconds before the wood caught fire, the wand slowly beginning to decompose into ash.

"You can have this. You belong together. All the two of you do is cause death and destruction. Now, you'll burn together."

For the next several minutes, Harry simply watched as Riddle's body began to fade away. It would take hours for the body to truly collapse and Harry wouldn't wait that long. But he did wait long enough for the wand to turn white and break apart. At almost the same time, Voldemort's face became an unrecognizable mass of scarred flesh.

Feeling simultaneously worse and better, Harry exited the chamber, leaving the door ajar. When he exited, smoke billowed out from behind him.

"What did you do?" Dedalus asked as he peaked in. It was impossible not to see the roaring fire where Riddle's body had been moments earlier.

Harry sighed deeply, knowing that this wouldn't be the only time he would have to explain himself.

"We would have argued for months over what to do with his body." Harry explained. "Some would have begged for us to burn him publicly for all to see. Others would have asked to bury him somewhere away from the rest of the world. There would have been more that would have suggested some sort of ironic burial location, like the graveyard with his Muggle father."

"That would have been funny." Dedalus admitted.

"Yes, it would have." Harry admitted. "But it would have kept us from moving on. We would have spent months deliberating and doing nothing about it. We are going to have enough other things to worry about over the next few months."

Harry took a hand and placed in on Dedalus' shoulder.

"He's gone. He's dead and gone and now, all we have to do is move on."

Dedalus nodded before turning back to the door. "I guess I don't have to stand guard anymore, do I?"

"Get some sleep." Harry sad with sad smile on his face. "I'm certain you could use it."

"Couldn't we all?" Dedalus said before wandering back towards the stairs of the castle. Instead of following Dedalus, Harry made his way through what used to be one of the exterior walls of the castle, walking out under the stars of the night.

The lack of a moon meant that it would have normally been a dark night. However, during The Battle, The Forbidden Forest had apparently caught fire. While there was some evidence at attempts had been made to slow down the blaze, the fire still roared, swallowing everything in its path.

Looking out over the grounds, Harry took in the devastation once more. Hagrid's hut was mostly gone, trampled by the giants that Voldemort had brought with him. The Quidditch Pitch was effectively gone, destroyed in the onslaught of spells fired by the Death Eaters. The courtyard under the clock tower was rubble as was the clock tower, the face of the clock lying in the middle of the broken courtyard itself.

Harry's home, the one place that he felt truly comfortable, had been destroyed. They would rebuild it, of that he was certain. But it would never feel the same. For years, Harry had been told that Hogwarts was the safest place imaginable. Even though a number of events had occurred during his time at Hogwarts that had made him question that stance, the castle had still felt like a haven, truly untouchable by the rest of the world.

Now, it stood in ruin, more rubble than castle at the moment.

Harry made his way to the lake, to the spot that he and Ginny had fled to during his sixth year, and sat, looking out over the water. Despite the wind flowing through the castle, the water on the lake was black and still, the only ripples created by the movements of the giant squid, who appeared to be the only thing at the school that was untouched by the battle.

How long Harry sat there before he eventually fell asleep again, he couldn't be certain. However, he was awoken by two things hours later.

The first was the sun, glaring down at him, forcing him to squint as he sat up.

The second was the sound of his name, shouted with apparent concern

"Harry!"

As he adjusted his glasses, he was able to see Hermione running down the hills of the grounds towards him with Ron and Ginny following behind. All of them had concerned looks on their faces.

"Hermione? What's the matter?"

"What's the matter?" Hermione shrieked as she approached. "We all wake up to find you missing, that's what's the matter!"

"You gave us a right good scare, mate." Ron added.

"Diggle finally mentioned that he saw you earlier this morning." Ginny finished.

"It was almost too early to call it morning." Harry said. "But yes, I was up and about earlier. I figured after almost a whole day of sleeping, it was probably time to wake up."

"You were so still in your sleep." Ginny whispered. "You looked like you were dead."

Suddenly, the image of a green flash popped into his mind following by an image of King's Cross Station. No one else yet knew what Harry had survived in the forest.

Apparently, the look on his face was enough to warrant concern, judging by the looks on the faces of his friends.

"Everything alright?" Ron asked.

"Fine." Harry answered. "Well, not fine but there's nothing wrong that we can actually fix right now."

Harry looked up at the wreckage of the castle once more, shocked to see that it somehow looked worse in the daylight. Large sections of the castle had simply been blown away and there were several spots where Harry could see straight through to the other side of the castle.

How the castle remained standing, Harry couldn't be certain.

"I see that repairs on the castle have already started." Harry mused.

"Repairs probably aren't the right word." Ginny muttered. "We spent most of yesterday simply clearing out the rubble and arranging for the transport of the deceased."

"They're planning a large memorial service for tomorrow." Hermione added. "Kingsley and McGonagall have asked us to attend."

"We told them that you would be there." Ron said sheepishly.

"Of course, I'll be there." Harry said, although he knew that it would likely be one of the hardest days of his life. But he also knew that his presence was required. For the families of those that died, seeing that Harry had survived to fulfill the Prophecy and end Tom Riddle's life might be some comfort, knowing that their family didn't die in vain.

The quartet walked back up towards the castle. As Harry got closer, however, he felt a sudden tug somewhere deep inside him. For hours after Harry had defeated Voldemort, he had felt a requirement to speak to every person inside the castle. It was only when Luna finally created a diversion for him that he was able to get away.

Harry realized that he wasn't ready to face those same people again. At the current moment, he needed some time to himself. He needed time to escape and to deal with his own personal traumas. While the desecration of Riddle's corpse had helped, he needed at least a few hours to get his life back in order before he tried to return to the public eye.

As he came to this realization, Harry stopped in his tracks, causing the others to stop in concern.

"I can't." Harry admitted. "I'm not ready to see them yet."

"You saw them all yesterday." Ron replied. "What's the difference?"

"I was running on adrenaline then. I just…."

"Need some more time alone?" Ginny asked. He had expected to hear a tone of accusation in her voice. The war was over. If there was ever a time for the two of them to get together, it was now. In the past, Ginny may have been more forceful about spending time with him.

But that tone of accusation never came. Instead, she simply smiled at him, gave him a kiss on the cheek and a pat on his hand.

"We've all been through a lot, Harry. But none of us more than you." Ginny replied. "Take all the time you need."

"Thanks." Harry said with relief. "I'm going to go see how Grimmauld Place is holding up."

"Are you certain you should go there alone?" Hermione asked. "Couldn't Death Eaters be hiding there?"

"I'm going to assume that any Death Eaters that managed to escape are looking to leave the country for the time being. While they can all get into Grimmauld Place, so can we."

"I suppose." Hermione replied. "If you run into any trouble, just get out of there."

"Yes, ma'am." Harry said sarcastically. Without even thinking about it, Harry turned on the spot.

Nothing happened.

"Did you seriously just try to Apparate out of Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"I-uh…..maybe?"

"How many times do I have to tell you-"

"At least one more, it seems." Harry said with a chuckle before withdrawing his phoenix wand and giving it a wave. Within moments, a Shooting Star, one of the school's brooms, flew into view. To be honest, Harry was shocked that the old broom had somehow survived the battle.

Of course, if anything was to survive the Battle, this broom, which had clearly seen it all, was going to survive.

With a quick nod to his friends, Harry mounted the broom and rode to the edge of the grounds. Once he was there, he turned once more and Apparated, broom and all, onto the front step of 12 Grimmauld Place.

Harry hadn't been exactly sure what he would see when he arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place, but it was definitely worse than expected. The house had most definitely been given the "Death Eater touch," with almost everything out of place.

Tables thrown aside, chairs torn apart; there was even a wall that had a giant hole in it. Whatever the Death Eaters thought they were going to find in the house, they certainly weren't gentle about searching for it. To be honest, Harry was a little surprised that the Death Eaters would deface the property like this. Grimmauld Place was the ancestral home of the Black Family, one of the oldest and most storied Pureblood families in all of England.

Apparently, the fact that the house was being used by Harry overrode that particular sentiment.

As Harry climbed the stairs, he checked every room, noticing that each room had been tossed in the same manner as those before. The room where Harry and Ron had first bunked was barely even a room with half the wall missing and the bunk bed thrown out into the yard behind.

All in all, as Harry reached Sirius' room at the top of the stairs, he knew that this house would require hours of work if it even wanted to return to a truly livable state. For some reason though, the idea of such a project thrilled Harry. It would be a moderately taxing exercise for which there was almost no danger. Sure, he would have to get someone to recheck the wards to ensure that they could be replaced so that Yaxley wasn't able to walk in his front door but once that was done, it was possible that maybe it could be a home for Harry someday.

At the very least, it would be his home for the meantime. He knew that he was going to be required to spend days at a time at The Burrow. After abandoning the Weasleys for almost a year, Harry doubted that Molly would let Ron out of his sight for longer than a day or two.

Harry understood Molly's instinct to hold her family close. Harry loves his friends dearly. They truly were his family and while Fred's death still burned to the core of his soul, it was nothing compared to what Molly must be feeling. No parent should outlive their child but the incredibly violent way in which Fred died could only make it worse. Harry knew that the image of Fred's last laugh would be burned into his mind forever, a lasting memory of the Battle.

When Harry entered Sirius' room, there was a moment where he had expected to see Sirius sitting on the edge of his bed, waiting for Harry. But as could be expected, his godfather didn't sit there, his body having faded into the nothingness of the Veil. But what did come back to Harry as he took a seat on the closest edge of the bed were memories.

A normal boy, when thinking about his loved ones, would have a rush of memories wash over him like a tidal wave.

But not Harry.

His memories of his loved ones came in flashes. A brief glimpse of his mother here, a snapshot of his father there. Only two years with Sirius and only a handful with Remus or Tonks. He mourned the most for the one he had known the longest, the one who he had lived with like the brother that he almost could have had.

Tears streamed down Harry's face as his memory skipped through time, showing him the faces of the ones who had died defending him. Harry had never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him, despite that being the overwhelming feeling that most people seemed to have towards him.

It's why he cried in solitude, away from the world where no one could see. If he had broken down in front of Hermione or even Ron, they would have taken him in their arms, held him close and told him that everything was going to be alright.

Harry knew the truth. Time would move on. His wounds would heal. But the death of his family and those that he loved would never be alright. It would hurt less and one day, Harry would only be able to remember the good things.

But now wasn't that time.

Now, it wasn't alright.


	2. Two

**A/N: I realize now that I didn't put this before the first chapter. Obviously, I don't own HP or I wouldn't be writing this for no money.**

 **Also, this story is in no way connected to any of my other HP stories (although you should obviously feel free to read those.)**

 **I don't intend for this story to be any sort of angsty drama or teen soap opera. This is simply my version of what happened in the days following the Battle of Hogwarts. Now, I have not decided at this point how "canon" this story will be. The events of the books happened exactly as JK wrote them. I'll even say that Fantastic Beasts counts. Throw Cursed Child out the window (although I would be shocked if the events of that book interfere with this story in anyway).**

 **However, I haven't decided whether the Epilogue (repressed shudder) is canon for this story. This means that no one is technically safe as Harry will slowly start to find out over the next few chapters. Despite Voldemort's death, the war is not over for anyone yet.**

 **I have the first few chapters of this story written and I'm actively working on more. I wanted to drop the first two chapters over a 24 hour period and then I will be doing my best to post a chapter every two weeks. If I happen to write slower than that, I will update in another Author's Note.**

 **Finally, I don't beg for reviews but I do like feedback. Just knowing that someone else enjoyed the story makes my day. Even if you didn't like the story, please let me know (in a respectful way). Either way, the more feedback I get, the more likely I am to write. So, if you're enjoying the story, leave me a line. I will likely reply.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Harry sat at the dining room table of Grimmauld Place (or what was left of it) when a familiar minuscule owl came screaming into the room, dropped a small scroll of parchment and then left. Harry chuckled at the sight of Pigwidgeon, still has excitable as ever, as the twitchy owl flew away then grabbed the parcel he had dropped, opening it to see Ginny's familiar handwriting.

 _Harry,_

 _The memorial is today at three. McGonagall has asked that you speak at the event. We'll be gathering at the castle around 2:30 if you want to meet us there._

 _You had everyone worried when you didn't return last night. Thankfully, Hermione had the portrait of some old codger who apparently shares a portrait at Grimmauld Place in her place. He said that you had fallen asleep there. We all understand that you need some space. Hell, we all need some space. Just let us know what you're up to._

 _We worry about you._

 _G_

Harry honestly hadn't meant to stay the night at Grimmauld Place. But as the afternoon turned to night, Harry's body had begun to shut down on him. Eventually, he had simply rolled over onto Sirius' bed, falling asleep almost the moment his head touched the pillow.

As Harry finished eating the breakfast that Kreacher had prepared had prepared for him that morning, he couldn't help but wonder if there would ever be a day where he wouldn't feel exhausted. Even after a full night's sleep and the near-comatose state that Harry had existed in after the Battle, he still felt as if he could climb into bed and sleep for hours.

It was possible that it was some sort of side effect from Riddle's Killing Curse. Harry supposed that if he had to choose between a lifetime of pure exhaustion and being dead, he would pick the former over the latter.

Looking at the clock above the oven, Harry could see that it was just after eleven in the morning. That gave him just over three hours to get ready for the memorial service to be held at Hogwarts. Normally, the idea of having to speak in public would give Harry some sort of anxiety attack. But again, between dying and speaking in front of a crowd, Harry chose public speaking.

Once Harry finished his breakfast, he showered and shaved. Even at seventeen years old, Harry had managed to grow a considerable amount of stubble in the last few months of their journey. While Harry didn't necessarily mind the look, he had no desire to be on the front of _The Daily Prophet_ looking like some homeless child.

After he ensured that he hadn't missed any spots, Harry Apparated to a Muggle store in Chelsea where he was able to purchase a new black suit for the occasion. Despite the fact that wizards hardly wore suits, it wasn't something that Harry felt that he would ever get used to. Dress robes certainly looked good enough but in the end, there was simply something about a well-tailored suit that Harry thought looked better.

After a quick lunch, Harry once again Apparated, this time landing in the center of Hogsmeade. As Harry had expected, the air around him was full of people from the outside world Apparating into the town, making their way towards the castle.

When Harry landed, he expected to be swarmed by people: reporters, friends and others than wanted to speak to him for one reason or another.

But that wasn't the case. As Harry walked down the center of the road towards the castle, the only person that even acknowledged him was Aberforth, who stood on the front step of the Inn. Aberforth met Harry's eyes, held them for a moment and then simply nodded. Harry returned the look before turning and pacing himself up the hills towards the castle.

As he got closer to the grounds of the school, Harry noticed that he didn't recognize a majority of the people that were coming up the hill with him. In fact, it appeared that most of the people climbing towards the castle weren't even British. Listening to the conversations being had around him, Harry could identify at least a dozen different languages being spoken.

It suddenly dawned on Harry that this event wasn't some sort of small "Order of the Phoenix-only" event. Instead, this was going to be an official Ministry event with ambassadors and politicians from around the world gathering to mourn those that had died at the Battle of Hogwarts.

And Harry would be speaking in front of them.

Any time that Harry had to panic disappeared as Harry approached the castle and saw the large platform that had been erected in the center of what was formerly the Courtyard. Hundreds of people were already seated in chairs that had been set up in between piles of rubble with hundreds more starting to pour in from seemingly everywhere

Seated at the front of the crowd was the entire Weasley clan along with Hermione and several high-ranking members of the Ministry of Magic including the temporary Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt. Harry fought his way through the crowd, attempting to get to his friends when he felt a tug on his arm.

Before he even realized what was happening, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and a flash of blonde hair whipped through the air before he realized that it was Luna who had physically assaulted him. At first, Harry thought that Luna was hugging him because she was excited about seeing him.

Then, he realized that she was crying.

Initially, Harry wasn't exactly sure what he should be doing. In all of his seventeen years, not many people had come to cry on his shoulders. Something about being an orphan fated to kill or be killed by a mass murdering psychopath created the impression that Harry wasn't the person to come to with your problems.

With Riddle gone, apparently that wall was gone.

Harry held onto Luna, allowing her to get it out whatever it was that was bothering her. Eventually, Luna backed away and Harry was able to get a good look at her. It was clear that this wasn't the first time that Luna had broken down over the last few days. Even though she had been thin due to her months in captivity, she looked even worse now than she did the last time that Harry had really been able to look at her.

"Luna." Harry said, his voice cracking gently. "What's the matter?"

"My father died in Azkaban two hours before you showed up at Hogwarts." Luna replied, her eyes fixed firmly on the ground.

"Merlin, I'm so sorry." Harry said as he moved towards Luna, pulling her close once more. "I wish that we had been able to get him out."

"It's not your fault." Luna whispered in his ear before backing away to look at him. "None of this is your fault. There is only one person to blame for all of this."

"I can't help but-"

"This is Riddle's fault, Harry." Luna repeated urgently. "It's his fault and the people that followed him."

"OK, Luna." Harry muttered. "Your father loved you more than anything, Luna. When we saw him, he was devastated that you had been taken, although we didn't know why at the time. He was ready to destroy the world to make sure that you got back to him."

"I know. It's why he ended up in Azkaban in the first place." Luna replied, her face downtrodden at the realization that her father's actions had been what had gotten him killed. "I'm sorry about Professor Lupin. He was a good man."

Harry hadn't been thinking about Remus or Tonks or Fred or any of the others until that moment. Suddenly, a wash of misery and grief flooded Harry's mind, reminding him of all that he had lost over the course of the last few years, let alone those that he had lost since birth.

"Yes, he was." Harry whispered, not daring to say more at the moment. He knew that he still had to get through his speech in front of hundreds of people, something that would have become almost impossible if he was sobbing before it even started.

Before he had a chance to think about it, Harry took Luna by the hand and pulled her through the crowd towards the Weasleys. After nearly being forced to push his way through the last group crowding around the stage, Harry and Luna broke free into the space just around where the Weasleys now sat. Once they saw Harry, all of them stood up and surrounded him, pulling him into a crushing pile of ginger hair and tears. Not for a moment did any of them seem to notice that Luna was in the center of the pile with him.

Finally, Harry pushed his way away from the swarm, a begrudging smile on his face as he noticed just how red Luna's face had become. Harry put an arm around her, pulling her close so that only she could hear what he whispered in her ear.

"When I didn't have a family, the Weasleys took me in." Harry said. "Now, it's my turn to return the favor for you."

Luna looked up at Harry, confusion on her face. Harry pointed at the seat next to the one with his name on it. When it was clear that Luna didn't know what Harry meant, he took her hand once more and escorted her to the seat.

"Harry, I'm certain that someone else should sit here." Luna muttered, clearly nervous about being seated in the front. "Don't you want to sit next to Hermione or Ron or someone like that?"

Harry took the seat next to Luna and then leaned close to her.

"Hermione has Ron, Ginny has the rest of her family: who do you and I have?"

"You have the Weasleys, too." Luna pointed out.

"I do." Harry admitted. "But in the end, I'm not a Weasley. Neither are you. So at least for today, you and I are family."

"Thanks, Harry." Luna said, her face once again a bright shade of red. "You don't have to do this."

Harry was about to reply when he noticed Kingsley stand and make his way to the stage, accompanied by Professor McGonagall. Turning around from his front row seat, Harry looked back and noticed that he couldn't even see the back row, a fact that intimidated him greatly. Harry sat on the center aisle with Luna immediately to his left, followed by Hermione and the rest of the Weasley clan.

In the rows behind them, Harry noticed that he once again only recognized a few faces. One of the few faces that Harry did recognize caused Harry's chest to burn with anger as the weak-willed former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge sat just two rows behind him, conversing with someone that Harry couldn't identify.

Behind the three or four rows of political guests, Harry noticed that most of Dumbledore's Army sat in the following rows on their side while the Order of the Phoenix had filed into the rows opposite them. Harry saw Andromeda Tonks seated about ten rows back, holding a rather fussy baby in her arms. There were so many faces that Harry was expecting to see before he remembered that he would never see those faces again.

As Kingsley and McGonagall climbed the steps to the stage, the crowd seemed to sense that things were beginning to get started and any lingering conversation quickly ended.

Kingsley stepped up to the magical microphone, his deep baritone booming over the grounds and echoing into the distance.

"Thank you all for coming today." Kingsley started simply. "My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt, Acting Minister of Magic and today, we gather to mourn and to honor those that we lost just two days ago. On that night, we fought the largest battle in modern wizarding history to defend this great institution from Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. While we were successful in repelling their attacks, with The Man Who Lived defeating Lord Voldemort in the process, we were not without loss. Over fifty people who fought to defend Hogwarts died doing so."

"Today, it is my great honor to introduce the new Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Minerva McGonagall to say a few words."

At the mention of her name, McGonagall stood and took Kingsley's place behind the microphone. For several moments, she said nothing. Instead, she simply stared out at the crowd, scanning the faces for people she recognized much in the same way that Harry had.

Based on the look on her face, Harry could tell that she had also realized just how many people were missing.

Finally, McGonagall took a moment to look down at her notes before speaking.

"It is my great honor to stand before you today. Hogwarts, more than any place, is my home. I have often said that I would give my life for the school. But I had no idea what the true cost involved in doing so would be until Lord Voldemort attempted to invade the castle. I have been an instructor at Hogwarts since 1956. I have taught generations of students during my time in the castle, some of them giving me the great pleasure to instruct their grandchildren. This castle, its students and its faculty is my family."

"When I heard the rumor that Harry Potter had returned to Hogwarts early Saturday morning, I knew that the final battle against the Death Eaters would be fought on our doorstep. Voldemort would never have allowed The Boy Who Lived to escape and Harry would have never allowed Voldemort to leave the castle alive."

"But the moment the news that Harry had returned became official, students that I hadn't seen in years suddenly flocked to the castle. Members of The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army had returned, as would be expected. But masses of people showed up in Hogsmeade, attempting to sneak into the castle. As the night pushed onward and it became clear that the final battle of our time was being stage, even more former students of mine returned, standing with my current students to face off against the Death Eaters."

"While I certainly wish it had been under happier circumstances, I was happy to see my former students. But, the more of them that returned, the more of them were put in harm's way. In the end, over fifty people, all of whom I had taught at some point, perished. I was close with some and regrettably distant from others. But in the end, the only thing that matters was that they chose to come here and fight. While we all mourn for someone, there is solace in knowing that none of them died in vain."

McGonagall suddenly looked down at Harry, her eyes glistening with tears as she mourned for those that she had lost in front of thousands of people.

"I have had thousands of students over the years. But, I can honestly say that none of them have made me as proud as Harry James Potter. Harry, please come up here."

Feeling the gaze of every eye gathered there, Harry stood. As he did, he once again heard the crushing sound of applause that threatened to swallow him whole. Turning back to the crowd, Harry was surprised to see that every person gathered was standing, applauding Harry vigorously. For just the tiniest of moments, Harry stood and let everything sink in.

In every dream that Harry had ever had, he never thought he would see this day. There was no chance to defeat Lord Voldemort and for years, Harry had been certain that his defeat would also mean Harry's death.

In Harry's mind, that meant a day like this should have been impossible.

Harry marched up the stairs as the roar of the crowd only intensified. Harry stood stoically on the front of the stage, waving to the crowd to be quiet. Still, they didn't. For nearly five minutes, the crowd shouted and screamed. You would have been forgiven if you had thought that this was a party and not a funeral, given the noise that these people were making.

But just like Harry, these people had been given so little to celebrate over the years that if cheering for Harry was what they needed, Harry would never take that from them.

"Before Harry is given the opportunity to speak, I would like to say just one more thing. None of us would be here today if not for Harry. Everyone knows his story but for those of you who do not know Harry, there is far more to this young man than what you may have read in The Daily Prophet. Two years ago, when we lost Albus, Harry was trusted with the secrets that would lead to Lord Voldemort's demise. He was sixteen years old at the time. At sixteen years old, Harry, along with his closest friends, were given the an impossible task for a team of Aurors, let alone three underage wizards."

"And yet, we all stand here because somehow, someway, they managed to succeed. Their road to success was not perfect. The lives that we lost are evidence of that. But before you blame Harry for any of the lives that we have lost, remember that any sane person would have run away years ago, damning us all to live the rest of our lives under Lord Voldemort's tyranny. But Harry did not do that. Remember that without Harry, so many others could have been lost. Prophecy or not, Harry truly is The Chosen One."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. While he had never doubted that McGonagall cared about him, she rarely spoke so highly of anyone. To hear McGonagall so publicly profess her faith in him touched Harry to the very depths of his soul.

Harry stepped forward and embraced his former instructor.

"Thank you, Professor." Harry whispered in her ear.

"Albus would have been proud of you." she replied, tears in her eyes as they separated. "I amso proud of you."

Harry couldn't say anything. He just smiled, emotion preventing words from being formulated as he began to feel the tears form in his eyes. Harry pulled his former instructor in for one more hung before he let her go.

As McGonagall took her seat, Harry took a deep breath before turning to the crowd, stepping behind the podium. While he hadn't prepared any remarks, Harry knew exactly what he wanted to say.

He took a moment to recover from McGonagall's message and then, slowly, he began. When he did, his voice was weak and choked behind the tears that he already knew would come. Still, he sounded strong as his voice echoed over the Hogwarts grounds.

"Every person that died Saturday had a story." Harry started. "Every single one of them had a reason for being in the castle. Some of them fought for their friends. Others fought for the castle and its place in our world. But most of us….fought for our family."

Harry's eyes dropped to where the Weasleys sat in the front with Luna and Hermione. Harry realized at that moment that he truly was lucky to have all of these wonderful people in his life. Without them, he would be moving on from the darkest time in his life with no one. Instead, he was lucky enough to have a surrogate family to support him as they all attempted to move on.

They would be there for him just like he would be there for them.

"The definition of a family changed for me the day that my parents were killed. As most of you know, I spent my childhood with my aunt and uncle." Harry said, his voice cracking ever so slightly at the mention of the Dursleys. "They didn't show me what a family was like. They never treated me like I was one of their own. Because of who I was... _what_ I was, they treated me like garbage."

"But when I came to Hogwarts, I met the Weasley family. Over the following years, they became my family along with Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood and a host of others who didn't treat me like a celebrity. To them, I was just Harry, which is all I have ever wanted. Hogwarts is my home and within the walls of this castle, I made a family."

The moment of Fred's death suddenly flashed into his mind like a Muggle photograph, burned into his mind. For a second, Harry felt his legs weaken and he gripped the podium in front of him to help keep himself upright. Finally, Harry allowed the tears that he had been fighting back to come over him, his shoulders shaking as Harry bowed his head, trying to remain strong in front of the crowd.

As Harry sobbed, he felt a hand on his back. He turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind him, a sad smile on her face, her hand on his back to support him. Taking her strength as his own, Harry stopped his tears long enough to finish his remarks. When he finally looked up at the crowd, Harry didn't bother hiding his tears. Instead, he fought on through them, showing everyone that there was nothing wrong with crying for those that you loved and lost.

"I will never see my brother again." Harry whispered, his voice still carried by the power of the magical microphone. "Fred Weasley died as he lived: a smile on his face. He was surrounded by friends and family, people who loved him. Remus Lupin did the same. The man was a werewolf, the kind of being that society had shunned. And yet, he stood next to his family and fought to save the world from the kind of people that had spent years hurting him."

"He died holding the body of his wife. Tonks, despite being years younger, despite Remus' condition, loved Remus with every fiber of her being. She fought for her husband and her young child and her father, a Muggle-born wizard who was slaughtered by Snatchers in the months leading up to the battle."

"But the circumstances of their deaths is not their story." Harry said firmly. "Their stories are the lives they lived, the things they did, the lives they saved and the people they loved. We remember all of these people not by how they died but by how they lived. If we spend all of our time mourning and grieving the end of these lives, we will forget all of the wonderful things about these people."

"I have mentioned three people today. These are the three whose deaths affect me most, personally. But they are not the most important stories. Each and every story is important and deserves to be told. So, if you know someone who died here, and everyone does, share their story. Every person who died made the hardest choice of their lives and paid the ultimate price for it. That alone is worth their stories being told."

"This is not the end." Harry said suddenly, inspiration striking him. At this moment, anyone watching would have hardly recognized Harry. Instead of the somewhat meek public figure that Harry often portrayed, he stood tall, his voice strong and forceful as he spoke with conviction. The boy that people had recognized as Harry Potter was gone, replaced by the man he had been forced to come so early.

"While many have died here, their loss means that we are able to forge a new beginning. One free from the terror of Tom Riddle and his psychotic reign of terror. This war is not yet over. There are Death Eaters on the run, hiding from the Aurors. But I have faith in our new Ministry. I have faith that they will get the job done. I have faith that they will keep us safe from those who would seek to do us harm. I have faith that we will one day see the end of the Death Eaters. The people we lost here deserve that. We deserve that and I know that it will be so."

"Thank you."

There was no massive applause or celebration when Harry finished. It would have been inappropriate considering the setting of Harry's words. But Harry could sense that his words had some effect on the crowd, a feeling of warmth washing out over the congregation.

Harry took his seat back next to Luna, who placed a hand on his leg and gave him a slight squeeze. Harry looked at Luna but she betrayed nothing on her face. Instead, she looked back up at the front where Kingsley was back in front of the microphone, finishing up the ceremony with a few remarks.

When Kingsley finished, the crowd began to stand and slowly dissipate. As they did, a number of people, both those that he recognized and those that he didn't, came over to thank him. After nearly thirty minutes of shaking hands, Harry was finally free. He looked up in surprise to notice that the entire Weasley clan, along with Hermione and Luna, had remained behind to wait for him.

The first person to approach him was Mrs. Weasley, who pulled him into a crushing hug that lasted for almost a full minute. When she was finally done squeezing the life out of Harry, she retreated, the tears clear in her eyes.

"Thank you, Harry." she croaked, fighting through her tears to speak. "Your speech was lovely."

"I thought so too, son." Mr. Weasley added as he too embraced Harry. "Are you going back to Grimmauld Place again tonight?"

Harry wanted to retreat back to Grimmauld Place, getting away from the crowds that were sure to remain at Hogwarts. But Harry could tell based on a single sweeping look at the Weasleys that they wanted him to remain at the castle.

That made Harry's choice easy.

"Nah, I reckon I'll stay here with you tonight." Harry said, forcing himself to smile as he said it.

"Good man." Arthur replied, also with a grin. "We've been assisting with some of the repairs. I'm certain that the house elves will continue to welcome our help for as long as we can give it."

"Definitely." Harry said numbly. While Arthur spoke, he had a sudden realization. The crowd that had been gathered (it had to have been over a thousand people) had already dwindled down to less than one hundred people. Among the faces of the people that he could see, there was one consistency between all of them: they had all lost family or close friends in the battle.

Behind Arthur stood the Patil sisters. While Harry didn't know Padma's closest friends, he did know that Lavender Brown had been Parvati's. Lavender hadn't yet passed away from Fenrir Greyback's attack but according to the Healers, it was only a matter of time.

Andromeda Tonks had remained behind as well. She stayed in her seat, simply looking out over the grounds as she fed the infant in her arms.

But the one that surprised him the most was an old girlfriend of his: Cho Chang. She stood apart from where the ceremony had taken place, looking out over the Black Lake. Harry politely excused himself from the Weasleys and made his way over to Cho.

The first thing he noticed as he approached was that she was crying, although that wasn't uncommon for anyone these days. Secondly, she looked to be quite mad.

Nevertheless, Harry felt compelled to speak to her. So, he quietly approached, choosing to stand next to her and share the view. For a few moments, neither of them spoke, each waiting for the other to break the silence.

Eventually, it was Cho who chose to do so.

"What do you want, Potter?" Cho asked, her voice much colder than Harry had ever heard it.

"I wanted to see how you were doing." Harry said as he turned away from the lake towards her.

"I'm crying, like always." Cho snapped, refusing to look at him. "I don't want your pity, Potter. You can go."

Harry went over the list of people that he knew had died in his head. None of them seemed like the person that would give her this reaction. So, it was curiosity as much as genuine concern that made Harry ask.

"Who was it?"

His voice was as gentle as he could make it, soft and warm. For a moment, Cho refused to even look at him, let alone answer. Finally, she relented, turning her head ever so slightly to answer him.

"Marietta."

Of all the names that Harry had been expecting to hear, that was not it. It didn't take a genius to figure out who she was talking about. Marietta Edgecombe had been one of Cho's best friends at Hogwarts.

She had also been the one who had ratted out Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge.

"Is she gone?"

Cho nodded. "She felt guilty about what she had done sixth year. Only a few months later, when she realized what kind of damage she had done to my relationship with you-"

"And when she realized that Voldemort really was back." Harry grumbled. Despite the fact that she may have shown contrition, Marietta's role in the downfall of Dumbledore's Army was paired heavily with the death of his godfather in Harry's mind.

"I'm sure that played a role in it." Cho admitted, while still rolling her eyes at Harry's lack of tact. "But with Umbridge gone and the DA disbanded, she never got the opportunity to make up for it."

"She kept the coin, didn't she?"

Again, Cho nodded. But this time, it was accompanied by an outpouring of tears as she collapsed to the ground, her head falling into her hands as Harry caught her, preventing her from completely collapsing and potentially hurting herself.

"I don't know how she even saw it. It's not like she kept the coin on her. But it doesn't matter how she saw the message. She saw it and she came to Hogwarts. Her scars had mostly cleared up but apparently it was enough to keep Aberforth from letting her into the tunnel. She ran to the school instead."

"By the time she made it onto the grounds, the battle was in full swing. It only took her a few minutes to find me. By that point, she was living on borrowed time."

Cho looked back at the remains of the castle, all sorrow now burned from her face. Now, it was replaced with a burning hatred, an all consuming fire that threatened to eat her alive.

"We had been keeping the Death Eaters away from the Room of Requirement when you lot came out, followed by waves of fire. Moments later, the castle exploded. In the aftermath of that explosion, Antonin Dolohov came down the hall. I tried to stand up to him but I didn't even come close to holding my own. He had Stunned me and thrown me down the hall. Apparently, when he went to go kill me, Marietta jumped in the way."

"Her body landed on me, waking me back up. I awoke to see the dead eyes of my oldest friend staring at me with one of the most dangerous men in the world over her shoulder. He moved to attack me but George Weasley suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked him. I tried to get up but between being Stunned and Marietta on top of me, I couldn't move. I passed out again and when I awoke, I was in The Great Hall."

Harry was dumbstruck. Of all the things in the world that Harry had expected to hear when he asked Cho how she was doing, this story was probably second from the bottom with Cho mourning Riddle's death a very distant last place.

Still, Harry could understand Cho's pain. Plenty of people had died to save him but no one had ever leaped in front of him, taking a death specifically meant for him.

"She was a hero." Harry whispered. "Just like Fred and Remus, her story deserves to be told."

"You know what's funny?" Cho asked, her voice suddenly exceedingly cynical-sounding. "I was the one who believed in you. I was the one who believed in Dumbledore's Army. But she was the one who ran headfirst into the battle. She was the one who sacrificed herself for the cause. I don't think that I could ever do something like that."

"Something like what?"

"Take the curse for someone. I would freeze. I would stand there and let the people that I love die."

"You don't know what you would do." Harry reassured her. "But I do know that you are a good person. You care about people and you would do everything you could to help them."

"I don't know." Cho replied before looking up at Harry. "Thanks. I know that you've lost more than anyone so I-"

"It's not a competition." Harry countered. "We've all lost. That's all that matters. Whether it's your whole family or your best friend or the love of your life, we've all lost. There's nothing that says that we have to be fine three days later and nothing that dictates how we mourn."

"I suppose you're right."

"I hope I am." Harry admitted. "I'm going to be staying here tonight. If you want to talk, come to the Gryffindor Common Room. I'm certain the Fat Lady isn't going to be terribly picky about who she lets in tonight."

"Thanks but I think I'll go back to my flat tonight. I need a good night's sleep and while the couch in the Ravenclaw Common Room is as comfortable as I remember, it's not the same as your own bed."

"If you say so."

Cho stood, steadying herself against Harry as she did so. For a moment, she considered Harry and then leaned up and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"The world doesn't deserve you, Harry."

Harry wasn't exactly certain how to respond to that. So, he gave her a shrug and a bashful smile as his face turned bright red. Cho placed a soft hand on his face, looked him straight in the eye and then nodded before turning, walking towards the edge of the grounds where she could Apparate home.

Harry watched her walk away as Mr. Weasley once again approached him.

"You have a way with people, Harry."

"Dealing with death is one of the few things that I know I can handle." Harry replied, looking of at Cho as she walked away. "I always thought that Saturday night was the day that I had been training my whole life for. But as time keeps moving forward, I'm realizing that maybe it was actually today."

"Quite a profound statement." Mr. Weasley said with a proud smile. "I've been informed that there will be a meeting of the Wizengamot tomorrow to appoint a new Minister of Magic. Kingsley is widely expected to be the only candidate."

"That's good. Kingsley will do a good job."

"I mention it because Bill spoke to the goblins and discovered that you had officially inherited the Black estate, including the long vacant Black seat on the Wizengamot."

Hermione had mentioned that it was possible that Harry would inherit the seat during their time on the run. It had been one of their frequent conversation subjects while they were on the run. So, Hermione had been correct.

What a surprise, Harry thought.

"Whether you are there or not makes little difference to the outcome of the vote, but-"

"But my presence and my vote will be important moving forward." Harry interjected with a groan before turning back to Mr. Weasley. "I'm coming to realize that, whether I like it or not, people are listening to me now."

"My dear boy, people have been listening to you for years. You just didn't realize it. Dumbledore acted the way he did because he believed in you. His faith in you meant that the entire Order, an organization full of some of the best and brightest wizards of our time, followed your lead Saturday evening. People listen to you, Harry, and until you give them a reason not to, they will continue to listen to you. The only question becomes: how much do you want to say?"

"I'm not certain yet." Harry admitted. "But I will be there. Will you?"

"Yes." Mr. Weasley confirmed. "I've got several duties to perform at the meeting."

"Really?"

"The Weasley family has had a seat on the Wizengamot for years. All of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families have them. Well, all the ones that are left. We have protested having a seat for years because of how Muggleborn wizards were treated. But with the way things are now, we need to be proactive." Mr. Weasley said all of this rather quickly before adding: "I'll also be there in my new position."

"New position?"

"Deputy Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"Crouch's old department." Harry said with a grin. "You've certainly moved up in the world."

"When you spent your life upsetting people with power and money, you don't tend to advance. But the Ministry is in such flux right now that people aren't afraid to stand up against Purebloods anymore. I'll be sitting on the Wizengamot on behalf of the Department and Bill will take my seat as my oldest son. Percy will also sit on the court, taking the Prewett seat."

The Weasley family had been kept from power for years. Now, their beliefs and the fact that they had spent years standing up for those that couldn't stand up for themselves was finally paying dividends. They were now in a position to consolidate their power and affect some real change. Harry was admittedly very excited to see what they would do with their newfound position of power.

"Anyway, that's enough shop talk for tonight." Mr. Weasley said. "It's been a long day for all of us. I think taking some time to relax would be a great way to finish out the day."

"I'll be up in a bit." Harry answered. "I think I'm going to spend some more time out here."

"Take all the time you need."

As Mr. Weasley walked away, Harry sat on the hill facing the lake. Based on this view, the only thing that Harry could tell was different about the school was the fact that Hagrid's hut had been burned almost to the ground. Other than that, the grounds of the school toward the lake looked almost untouched as the Death Eaters had avoided the area almost entirely during their siege.

Just like the day before, Harry sat and simply watched the water. Unlike almost everything else in his life, the lake was constant. It bore no signs of the Battle, looking just the same as Harry remembered from when he had crossed it before his first year at the school.

Unlike the day before, he only remained outside for roughly an hour before he decided that joining the rest of the group would probably be a good idea. He found the Weasleys in the Great Hall, attempting to put parts of the ceiling back together. While none of them would be able to replicate the charm that had made it look like the sky above, they would at least be able to prevent the rain from coming in.

As they all worked to levitate giant pieces of rubble in tandem to the ceiling so that they could be attached once more, Harry was able to watch everyone and take note. Of everyone there, Hermione seemed to be handling things the best. It made sense. Over the years, Hermione had gone from someone who panicked at the first sign of trouble to one of the most focused and determined people he knew. While Harry knew that she was feeling her own sense of loss, she, like Harry, hadn't lost a biological relative in the Battle.

Ron and Charlie both were doing their best to keep the mood light. It was working but just barely. Every once in awhile, they would lasp into bits of storytelling that would sound almost verbatim to an old Fred & George hijinx. Unfortunately, no one could do it like the two of them. All it succeeded in doing was reminding everyone that Fred was gone.

Bill and Fleur had gone the other route. Neither of them were showing much in the way of emotion. Instead, they were clearly the leaders of the cleanup effort, focusing all of their attention on ensuring that the castle was put back together as quickly as possible. However, Harry could see the cracks already starting to form when Bill thought no one was looking.

George was suffering more than anyone else in the room. But unlike Ginny or their parents, who occasionally burst into random bouts of sobbing, George suffered silently. According to Ron, no one had heard George speak in anything other than curse since Fred's death. The usual merry look that he had worn was likely forever gone, destroyed by the death of his other half. Instead, he wore a blank expression that offered nothing to anyone.

But the person who Harry was worried about the most was Percy. Unlike everyone else, who was trying their best to keep control, Percy was acting in a way that Harry had never seen him. When an attempt to lift a boulder the size of four pewter cauldrons had ended with the boulder crashing to the floor, Percy had lashed out at his mother for dropping the boulder, blasted the rock to dust and then marched out of the room.

No one had seen him for nearly two hours. When he came back, it looked as if the time away had done nothing for him. He still appeared to be as irate he had been when he left.

Harry could understand Percy's behavior. Percy, in an attempt to rise through the ranks at the Ministry, had spent the last three years ignoring his family for their support of Dumbledore and Harry. The few times that Harry had seen Percy, he had hardly recognized him. Percy had always been self-absorbed but never intentionally cruel. Yet, in order to curry favor with the Ministry, he had been downright awful to his family.

Finally, when he had realized just how much of an idiot he had been, he came back to his family.

The same day, his brother had been killed.

Several others, including Neville, Luna, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson floated in and out of The Great Hall throughout the evening. They all helped but Harry noticed that they all seemed to be more concerned with talk. While helping fix the castle was a good cover, Harry knew that they were actually there to see just how the Weasleys were holding up.

If the Weasleys ever wondered just how loved they were by others, this was certainly proof of how highly they were thought of by the rest of the wizarding community.

When it got too dark to continue working, The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione climbed the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. The Weasleys were not the only people staying in the castle. In fact, if you wandered around the castle at night, almost every hallway had someone staying in it. Several classrooms had been Transfigured into large bunks for the people that remained behind.

Some of them stayed to help with repairs. Others stayed because their homes still weren't safe with the Death Eaters on the run.

But most of the people that stayed at Hogwarts stayed because they didn't want to go home. Once they did, they would realize that something was missing, someone that had once been there and no longer was. While Ginny and Mrs. Weasley had taken to randomly bursting into tears, the rest of the family was throwing up walls to keep themselves from collapsing.

But eventually, those walls would break. Harry strongly suspected that the first day back at The Burrow would be the worst day for the Weasleys as the memories of their fallen son flooded their minds.

Standing in the shower, Harry washed the sweat and dirt from the castle down the drain, taking as long as humanly possible to simply stand and enjoy the hot water. It had been a long day and the hot water helped wash it away. As the water poured over his head, Harry's mind wandered to those that he had lost.

Above everything else, Harry's heart ached for the sacrifice that almost everyone had made in the name of bringing down Lord Voldemort. For almost everyone that he knew, they hadn't wavered when told that they were going to be thrown into battle against the Death Eaters. Internally, all of them knew that there was a strong chance that either someone they loved or themselves wouldn't be coming out of the Battle alive.

Yet, they fought. They fought although they were outnumbered, outflanked, outclassed and generally overwhelmed in every way. If the Battle of Hogwarts had been a conventional battle, the Death Eaters would have won convincingly.

Thankfully, the search and destruction of the Horcruxes had been what swung the battle.

As Harry dressed, he could hear the sounds of the Weasleys talking in the common room below. While he knew they all mourned for Fred, Harry hoped they realized just how lucky they were. If Harry had to guess, he would say that one out of every three people who entered the Battle had perished fighting it.

By that math, at least one, if not two, more Weasleys should be dead.

The Weasleys, plus Harry and Hermione, remained in the Common Room until late that night. It seemed as if everyone was afraid to walk away, fearful that they might wake up to another death. But after Hermione nearly fell out of a chair due to exhaustion, the group made the decision to sleep. Harry and Ron, along with Percy, returned to their dormitory while Ginny and Hermione slept in theirs. Bill and Fleur stayed with George in his old dorm while Charlie and his parents slept in the Common Room, spread among the chairs and couches.

Harry slept restlessly that night. Still, when he awoke, he found himself feeling considerably better than when he had gone to bed.

After nearly thirty-six hours with no sleep, dying and coming back to life and watching several of his loved ones die, even bad sleep was better than nothing.


	3. Three

Harry awoke earlier than the rest. The meeting of the Wizengamot, which would be also attended by Percy, Bill and Mr. Weasley, would take place at nine in the morning but Harry was awake, showered, dressed and fed before the sun had come up.

Eventually, the rest of the group began to rise and Harry shared a separate and far more filling breakfast with the Weasleys before the four members of the Wizengamot made their way to the Headmaster's Office where they would be able to Floo to the Ministry.

There was a moment of silence when Harry's feet hit the floor of the Atrium at the Ministry. Looking around, Harry could see that they were in the process of eliminating all signs of Voldemort's reign including the destruction of the statue that they had erected depicting magical kind standing on the shoulders of "lesser beings" like Muggleborn and Muggles.

That silence that Harry noticed only lasted a second before a wave of reporters flooded the area, cameras flashing as dozens of people surrounded him, shouting overlapping questions that Harry couldn't even hear, let alone answer. Harry followed behind Bill and Percy as they forced their way through the crowd.

Eventually, a collection of Aurors surrounded the four of them, guiding Harry and the Weasleys to the lifts where they were able to enter and descend to Level 2 and Courtroom 10 where the Wizengamot would convene that day.

As they entered the room, Harry was pulled aside by Percy.

"Harry, I need to warn you about something." Percy said, looking around to make sure they weren't overheard. "There are still a fair number of Wizengamot members who were Death Eaters or whose family were Death Eaters. They are certain to present their own candidate today. Since you are now on the Wizengamot, I would guarantee that they will try to target you and try to discredit you before you get the opportunity speak in support of Kingsley."

"What else is new?" Harry scoffed.

"Above everything else, you cannot rise to their bait." Percy implored. "Stay calm and everything will work out just fine."

"When in my life has everything worked out fine?" Harry said with a smirk before looking back at the court. "Where do I sit?

"As one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight seats, you'll be seated in the front. Thankfully, you'll be able to sit with Bill and myself."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that." Harry said. "Your family has had two seats on the Wizengamot and chose not to use them?"

Percy's face went a little white at the question. "It was our parents' choice. Mother is the last Prewitt and Father sits as the oldest Weasley. They didn't want to support the Ministry if they weren't going to take a stand on people who used to be Death Eaters. Dad could have taken the seat years ago but chose to leave it vacant in protest."

"But with things moving towards our side, it's more helpful to have the seat taken." Harry remarked, understanding the choices the Weasleys had made.

"Correct." Percy confirmed. "Things today will go relatively simply. Tiberius Ogden, who is acting as the Chief Warlock, will present the candidates. A panel of five judges will be selected among the Wizengamot to interview each of the candidates. Once the interviews are over, votes will be cast. If someone gets more than fifty percent of the votes, they win. If no one receives that amount, the third candidate is removed and we vote again. Abstentions are not allowed in a runoff vote. Whoever finishes on top will be the new Minister of Magic, effective immediately."

"Seems like a rather efficient process considering it's the Ministry."

"Don't expect this to go quickly, Harry." Percy chuckled. "This will likely be a long day."

Sitting in the front row between Percy and Bill, Harry couldn't have imagined Percy being any more right. What Harry had expected to be a brief introduction from Tiberius Ogden turned into a two hour speech about unity and keeping the Ministry of Magic strong.

The only problem with that was that Ogden was a horribly boring person. He spoke with no particular energy and even when he ramped up to his "impassioned" ending, he ended up speaking at barely much more than a bothered shout.

When Ogden was done, the announcement of the three candidates was next. The first candidate was the presumed front-runner and temporary Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt. The second was Ogden himself. Ogden had been a premier member of the Wizengamot prior to Dumbledore's ousting as Chief Warlock. When Dumbledore had been forced out, Ogden had led a sizable group of people who had been appointed to the Wizengamot to resign.

However, with the loss of several Pureblood members and Death Eater sympathizers, Ogden had returned to the Ministry and apparently had significant backing to attempt to take over the Minister's role.

But it was the third candidate that was the most shocking. In fact, when Harry heard the name, he thought that he had been suddenly struck dumb. However, when it was revealed that the man who had nominated him was the proxy for Lucius Malfoy, it suddenly made sense.

Seated in the center of the three candidates, in between Kingsley and Ogden, was former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Harry's blood boiled as he met the eyes of the old buffoon. Fudge seemed to have aged years in the last few months since he had last seen him. He appeared to have added well over one hundred pounds in weight and his head was almost completely balding with just a few wisps of white hair left.

How anyone could consider Fudge was beyond Harry but it was clear that the Malfoys were trying to install a Minister who would be sympathetic to them. More than likely, they were trying to get a Minister who would cut a deal with them that would keep them out of Azkaban.

The very thought of all three Malfoys wandering the streets free forever made Harry want to vomit.

With the introduction out of the way and nearly three hours into the meeting of the Wizengamot, the final stage before the actual election was the selection of a panel of five Wizengamot members who would interview the candidates.

The process was simple. A candidate was nominated from the floor which was followed by a vote. If fifty percent of the Wizengamot approved, they were given their time to interview the candidates. This process would repeat itself until five people had been selected.

The problem was that almost no one would vote for anyone, meaning that this process went on for nearly forty minutes before the first person was selected.

Surprisingly, the first person selected was Arthur Weasley, whose personal star at the Ministry seemed to have exploded in the last few days. The day before, Arthur had been named the Deputy Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. In that role, he now represented the Department in the Wizengamot.

Arthur's interview was brief but thorough. He asked each of the candidates a variety of questions regarding their suitability for the role of Minister. He was calm and professional in a way that Harry had never seen from his surrogate father, all his tics and quirks seemingly gone. It was as if he wore a mask, hiding his true self behind an air of authority that he had never been forced to wear before.

It took another two hours for three other pointless interviews to happen. It was as if everyone was too afraid to actually ask these men, all of which were up for the head of their government, any tough questions.

Harry sat and scoffed his way through three utterly mindless questions. One of the questioners even had the audacity to ask Fudge if he missed being Minister of Magic.

Fudge smiled and told everyone how happy would be to resume his old post. Harry had actually laughed, only ten feet from the old fool. Fudge looked up with disdain before realizing that the source of the sound had come from Harry.

Then, he looked fearful. It suddenly occurred to Harry that all four people had spent most of their time speaking directly to him. They had done this with no one else. Looking around the room, Harry noticed that as many people were looking at him as the three candidates.

Harry nudged Bill with his arm and then leaned over, whispering his ear. When Bill pulled back, he first looked at Harry in shock. Then, a smirk fell over his face as he raised his hand.

"I nominate Harry Potter."

Almost immediately, there was a wave of noise that flooded the room. Only after Ogden raised a hand to silence the room did the noise finally stop.

"Cast your votes." Ogden droned from his seat at the front.

For a second, no one voted and Harry thought that he was going to be shut out of the voting. But a moment later, every hand in the room rose, the first and only unanimous vote of the day.

With that taken care of, Harry stepped down from his seat and onto the floor where the three candidates sat. Harry looked at the three of them carefully before deciding that he needed to start with a statement of sorts.

"Kingsley and I worked together within the Order of the Phoenix, both of us operating under Albus Dumbledore's orders." Harry started. "I wished to divulge this information to the court before asking him any questions related to the Minister's position."

Having said his piece, Harry turned away from the court and faced Kingsley. Much like the rest of the candidates, Kingsley hadn't been tested much by the others, Arthur Weasley included. Harry knew that there were dozens of people in the room who would expect him to only attack Fudge and his record.

But Harry intended to be taken seriously by the Wizengamot and in order to do so, Harry couldn't afford to look like he was giving any of the three candidates a pass, especially one with which he had a history.

However, before he got to Kingsley, Harry decided he would start with the candidate about which he knew the least, Tiberius Ogden.

"Mr. Ogden, I would like to thank you for your years of service to the Ministry and for your support of Albus Dumbledore and myself a few years ago."

"You are welcome." Ogden replied simply. Harry could already tell that he was going to have to work to get Ogden to say more than a few words at a time.

"Now, can you please give me your history with the Ministry of Magic." Harry asked. "Some of us haven't been with the Wizengamot long enough to know your history."

"Certainly." Ogden replied without even a hint of a smile. "When I graduated from Hogwarts, I joined the Ministry as a junior aide to Minister of Magic Millicent Bagnold. I worked in that department for two years before serving as an adviser for the Department of Magical Transportation, eventually advancing to the position of Deputy Head of the Department. I served in that position for five years before I was named the Wizengamot representative from the Department. Three years ago, I resigned both positions when Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge instigated a smear campaign against you, a fourteen-year-old boy at the time."

Fudge's face when Ogden revealed the reason for his resignation, something he had never publicly stated before, turned bright red as he clearly clenched his jaw in anger.

Harry had to keep himself from laughing at him in public.

"You certainly have had a storied career at the Ministry." Harry replied. "However, it doesn't appear that you have any experience in law enforcement."

"Is that a question, Mr. Potter?" Ogden answered. "As you know, I am only required to address questions asked directly to me."

"It is a question." Harry grumbled, forcing himself not to roll his eyes at the man, a stickler for rules at a level that would have embarrassed Hermione.

"Then, no, I do not have any experience in law enforcement."

"Would you consider that an essential part of the job in our current climate?"

"Can you explain what you mean?" Ogden asked.

"Dozens of wanted criminals escaped from the Battle of Hogwarts. Others were captured and will need to be put on trial for their actions. The relationship between the Minister of Magic and the Aurors will be as essential to the safety of our people as it has ever been. Yet, you have no experience working with the Aurors in any official capacity. You have no experience working with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Would you consider experience in those two areas an essential part of the Minister's job, given the situation we find ourselves in?"

Ogden stared at the floor for a moment, clearly surprised by the question. Already, Harry was finding it easy to use the fact that people expected so little of him to his advantage. He knew what his reputation was. He was hot headed, stubborn, capable of powerful feats of magic but knew little of nuance or subtlety. While all of those things may still be true, Harry knew that if he wanted to affect real change, he was going to have to do one of two things.

First, he could adopt a public persona, one that was shrewd and calculating. It would require a lot of work, considering that Harry wasn't a good actor or liar.

The second thing he could do was lean into the expectations people had for him. He could be the loudest and boldest voice in the room. All the while, Harry would be working with others in the background. Harry would never get the credit for the things that he accomplished this way but things would get done.

After killing Voldemort, Harry would never need credit for anything again. Harry simply wanted to get things done.

"I am aware that I do not have the experience that most would prefer." Ogden finally answered. "But, I am confident that, with the support of the Aurors, I would be just fine."

It was the exact kind of answer that Harry wanted. Flippant, clearly dismissive and just enough of an answer that Harry could jump on. Harry made no point in hiding it: he wanted Kingsley to be the Minister of Magic. But the thing that made Kingsley the most qualified was what Harry intended to show: he was never going to treat a question the way Ogden had. He would remember that he wasn't really answering Harry's questions but the questions of the Wizengamot (Harry hoped that Kingsley would do so at least).

Ogden had forgotten that, choosing instead to answer the _boy_ in front of him with what almost appeared to be contempt.

"We don't want _fine,_ Mr. Ogden." Harry snapped. "Fine wasn't acceptable for Cornelius Fudge or Rufus Scrimgeour and despite the fact that Tom Riddle is dead, it will not be fine for you either."

"You misunderstand-"

"I think I understand just fine." Harry interrupted. "You'll do _fine."_

With that, Harry turned away from Ogden, leaving him slack-jawed and silent. Now, he moved to the other end of the line where Kingsley sat waiting, a smile that was only visible to those that knew him on his face. He clearly found Harry's dismantling of Ogden amusing. Harry only hoped that Kingsley wouldn't expect to be spared from a similar line of questioning.

"Mr. Shacklebolt," Harry started formally, "you have been an Auror for sixteen years and a Senior Auror during the last ten of those. As someone whose record is as exceptional as yours, why did it take you six years to obtain the rank of Senior Auror?"

Kingsley looked shaken for a moment. Kingsley and Ogden's names had been widely floated as potential candidates. As a result, Harry had spent much of the previous evening talking to the Weasleys about both men, asking a variety of questions about their careers. That included information on both of their shortcomings, even though he considered Kingsley to be a friend."

"Two mistakes early in my career after Tom Riddle disappeared were the largest culprit." Kingsley admitted, clearly not happy to be discussing them.

"Can you elaborate on them?"

"To an extent. Both are related to the investigations of suspected Death Eaters at the time and are therefore heavily protected cases. The first was the investigation into a highly placed individual who we believed to have been supporting Riddle's regime. He was well regarded in the Ministry at the time and when my superiors discovered that I was investigating him, I was told to drop the case."

"I am assuming you did not."

"You would be right." Kingsley replied. "When my superiors discovered that I was still looking into it, I was given a reprimand which remains on my file to this day."

"Who was the suspect in question?"

"Unfortunately, due to the nature of my reprimand, I am unable to reveal anything other than the fact that he was one of the wealthiest wizards in the country."

Wealthy, male and highly placed in the Ministry. Without saying the name, Kingsley had done everything but shouted Lucius Malfoy at the top of his lungs.

"The other incident?"

"I led a team of three Aurors into the residence of Augustus Rookwood before his capture at the hands of Alastor Moody. I was ordered to wait for additional backup. However, I believed that we would lose the Death Eaters inside if we did so and so I order the other Aurors to follow me into the house. Both Aurors died in the subsequent assault and I was put on desk duty for one year."

"Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Shacklebolt." Harry replied. Neither of those incidents had come up in Harry's conversation with the Weasleys which meant that they had likely been pulled from his file, a good sign for his candidacy for Minister of Magic.

"You have only been an Auror." Harry stated, moving on from Kingsley's past. "Yet, most of the Minister's job is working with the rest of the Ministry, something with which you have little experience, at least in the public eye."

"That's not entirely true." Kingsley interrupted before Harry could get to the question. "The Auror Department works with every single office in the Ministry. In addition, I have been voting in the Wizengamot through a proxy for years. While I did not have the time to attend Wizengamot votes, I have been doing the research on every vote that this body has taken for years. As a result, I am well aware of what the Ministry has been doing and just how it has been functioning. I know who are my allies within the Wizengamot and who among this body would act against my interests."

Harry had personally hoped that Kingsley would bring up his proxy vote. It wasn't something that Harry believed that he could bring up himself but the mention of the fact that Kingsley had been working with the Ministry for years was definite advantage for someone who was seen as nothing more than a Dark wizard catcher.

"Thank you, Kingsley."

Taking a deep breath, Harry's eyes sunk to the floor before flicking up towards Cornelius Fudge. Harry wished nothing more than his very gaze would burn a hole through the old codger's head. Unfortunately, that wasn't an area of magic that Harry had yet mastered.

"Mr. Fudge." Harry growled through a clenched jaw.

"Mr. Potter." Fudge replied, his eyes firmly locked on the ceiling above Harry's head.

For a moment, neither moved and neither spoke. Every other interaction that Harry had experienced with Fudge had been one of a child and a Head of State.

No longer.

Now, they were both of age (although Fudge significantly more so) and if anything, Harry was the superior, Fudge the boy.

Now, the prey.

"June 25, 1995."

"The evening of the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament." Fudge muttered.

"The night Voldemort regained physical form." Harry snapped. "Recount your experience."

"I was simply a bystander for the events." Fudge replied. "I'm not certain how my perspective matters."

"You were the Minister of Magic at the time, Mr. Fudge. Unlike our other two candidates, we don't have to rely on guesswork to figure out how they will act as our head of state. With you, we have evidence. I would like the Wizengamot to hear how you act as our Minister of Magic."

"I made hundreds of decisions over my time as Minister of Magic. Just because you disagree with-"

"You will answer the question, Cornelius." Harry growled. "Answer the question or prove to this court that you are still too spineless to act in our best interest."

It appeared, for a moment, that Fudge almost considered feeling offended that Harry had dared use his first name. Then, a look of understanding crossed his face as he finally grasped the fact that their power dynamic had changed.

Harry was in charge now and it was Fudge's turn to take orders.

"Where would you like me to begin?" Fudge asked.

"With my return."

Fudge took a moment. "We had watched the Champions enter the maze. Krum and Delacour had already been pulled from the task, leaving Potter and Cedric Diggory left. After nearly two hours, both appeared before the crowd, Potter holding onto the Triwizard Cup."

"Diggory wasn't moving. Potter was laying across the boy. He was crying. Shortly thereafter, Alastor Moody declared that Diggory was dead. Potter could be overheard telling Dumbledore that... _he_ was back. In the confusion, it was discovered that Moody had taken Potter away. Almost instantly, Dumbledore suspected something and took off."

"I remained behind and ensured that everyone left the area before calling in the Aurors."

"What did the Aurors say about Cedric's death?" Harry replied, his voice sticking slightly at the mention of Cedric.

"No signs of what killed him. Clearly killed by the Killing Curse." Fudge admitted. "At the time, we had no idea who had done it. Roughly thirty minutes later, I was informed that Alastor Moody had been impersonated for roughly a year by Barty Crouch Jr. He had been orchestrating a conspiracy to kill Harry Potter by entering him into the Triwizard Tournament."

"Did you get a chance to speak with Crouch Jr?"

"I did. He explained the details of his plan, how he had worked for V-v….He Who Must Not Be Named and ensured that you ended up in a graveyard somewhere."

"He's dead, Cornelius. You can say his name." Harry said, taunting the former Minister of Magic.

"Right." Fudge countered, his face going pale almost instantly. "Anyway, I thought he was insane. There had been information that Potter was starting to lose it-"

"Information spread by notorious liar Rita Skeeter." Harry countered. "If you had asked anyone of any quality, you would have known otherwise."

"Yes...uhh, anyway, I determined that Potter's word couldn't be trusted and so I ordered a Dementor to Hogwarts where it performed a Kiss on Crouch Jr. Dumbledore and McGonagall were furious with me."

Harry let Fudge's words settle for just a moment before he pushed forward with the interview.

"You Kissed a known Death Eater without any other authority weighing in?"

"I was Minister of Magic. When dealing with known Death Eaters, final authority was given to me." Fudge replied proudly.

"And you didn't think for a moment to confer with anyone? Someone who might have known more about this than you?"

"Why should I?"

Harry was dumbfounded, incapable of speaking. Instead, Harry simply laughed, a dry spiteful chuckle that caused Fudge to throw up his arms. It was obvious that he felt disrespected.

Harry thought that it was about time.

"You were told that night that Voldemort had returned by no less than three people: myself, Barty Crouch Jr and Dumbledore. Two of us had physically seen him. Crouch had admitted to seeing and working for Voldemort while under the effects of Veritaserum. Yet, you never considered questioning me or examining my memories of the night. Why?"

"Because you were clearly under distress."

"So you did it for my well being?"

"Of course." Fudge lied.

"Can you explain to me what you saw in the Ministry Atrium one year later?"

Fudge sighed. "I saw Lord Voldemort dueling Albus Dumbledore."

Harry moved towards Fudge, putting his hands on the podium in front of Fudge and leaned forward, his face hovering only a few inches.

"I think you believed every word that Dumbledore and I said that night. I think you believed it but you were too much of a coward to do something about it. You didn't want to know the truth. So, you buried your head in the sand until you saw him with your own eyes and had no choice but to act."

"Is there a question in there, Mr. Potter?" Fudge scoffed.

"You lied to the public for a year. You dragged Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of our time, and his legacy through the mud all in the name of keeping your job and keeping your safety. Was it worth it?"

"Excuse me?"

"You kept your job. You were able to pretend that Voldemort was dead. All it cost you was the reputation of the greatest wizard alive at the time. Years from now, we'll remember Dumbledore as a visionary, someone who saved us all while valuing education above everything else. History will remember you as a coward who fought against what should have been his greatest ally just so that he could keep his job. So, was it worth it?"

Fudge's anger was clear. But the fact that he didn't answer right away spoke volumes. Instead, he looked around the room and found faces that he believed would support him. Then, strengthened by their support, he looked back at Harry.

"It was."

Harry had never expected Fudge to say that. Harry had expected Fudge to lie, to deflect or even to turn the question back on Harry. Instead, he doubled down, fighting back at Harry.

"I was the man who fought back against Albus Dumbledore and won."

"You won with Lucius Malfoy's money. You won because he paid the right people."

"That's what politics is, my dear boy."

"I'm not a boy, you fool." Harry replied, spit covering Fudge's face as Harry spat with disgust. "I killed Tom Riddle. Don't you remember hearing about that? I know you didn't see it because you are still too much of a coward to fight for anything other than yourself."

Fudge squirmed at the end of Harry's gaze, trying desperately to avoid Harry's eyes, clearly afraid that Harry might decide to attack him. Instead, Harry simply chuckled and turned to the assembly.

"Two of these men are honorable. Two of them will do their best to bring in the rest of the Death Eaters and they'll do it not for money or for power, but because it is the right thing to do."

Harry turned and looked at Fudge, who appeared to be disgusted with what he saw in front of him.

"Anyone who votes for Fudge will be publicly declaring their opposition to the legacy of Albus Dumbledore. Anyone who does that will find that our new Ministry of Magic will not welcome you. _I_ will not welcome you. You vote for Fudge and I will work every single day for the rest of my life to ensure that you don't get so much as a hearing in this Wizengamot."

Harry turned back to Fudge. "Go rot in hell with Riddle."

For a moment, the room was silent as Harry took his seat. Then, some of the room burst into raucous applause. There was even some cheering from the gallery.

Once the applause finished, Ogden stood and began the voting process. Roughly three minutes later, the first set of votes came back.

There were forty-eight voting members at the current time. Twenty votes came back for Kingsley, seventeen votes for Fudge and another eleven for Ogden. There was no clear winner so Ogden's name was dropped and another vote was held.

This time: thirty-one votes for Kingsley and the same seventeen for Fudge.

Harry cheered with the others as Kingsley was announced as the new Minister of Magic but at the same time, he felt a burning in his chest.

Seventeen people who voted for a man who clearly lied to the public for over a year.

Looking around the room, it was easy to spot who had voted for him. Seats belonging to families like Avery, Bulstrode and Carrow.

Fawley and Flint.

Lestrange.

Cornelius Fudge even had the audacity to vote as the proxy for Lucius Malfoy, something he had been doing privately for years.

Nott, Parkinson, Rosier and Rowle also voted for Fudge, completing the list of Death Eater families who support the Minister of Magic who would gladly take their money, wherever it came from.

Still, that was only eleven names. That meant that there were six people, likely those who had been appointed to the court by Fudge himself who had voted to re-elect the morally bankrupt former Minister of Magic.

Now, Harry had his first mission post-Riddle: turn the Ministry of Magic on its head


	4. Four

Harry stepped out of the Floo in the Headmaster's office with a singular goal: find Hermione Granger. Just before he had left the Ministry, he had been flagged down by Kingsley. The first thing Kingsley had done was thank him for supporting his candidacy.

He was already starting to talk like a politician.

The second thing he did was hand Harry an envelope. The letter inside was intended for Hermione. Harry was told what the letter contained but not the details of it. Harry was intrigued to discover just what Kingsley was offering her.

With that in mind, he fled from the Headmaster's Office and raced to the Great Hall. As he moved through the castle, he could tell that major changes had been made in just the few hours he had been gone. Walls that had been complete decimated were now upright and the hall that had been collapsed when Harry had first awoken after the Battle was now clear at the very least.

When he reached the Great Hall, he was surprised to see it empty. Because of the final battle that had taken place there, it was arguably the most damaged location in the castle with almost the entire ceiling having been blown away and two of the four walls entirely gone.

While it clearly wasn't done, the work that had been done there was extraordinary. Now, instead of two walls and two holes, there were two walls and two haphazardly placed walls. While they certainly wouldn't hold long, they would last until a more permanent solution could be found.

The ceiling was almost completely back in place. Harry knew that it was likely that the charms that had created the enchanted ceiling before were likely lost forever, dead with the Founders of the school. Still, it made Harry depressed to look up at the ceiling and see just brick and mortar.

Harry found Hermione in the one place that he should have looked first: the library. She was alone, cleaning up books and other paraphernalia, placing as much as she could back on the shelves. There was a large pile of pages and covers in the middle of the room.

Hermione's jaw was firmly set as she worked, her frizzy hair pulled back into a messy bun as she retrieved book after book from the floor. With each find, she would assess its condition and then begin wandering the shelves, looking for its proper place.

For anyone who didn't know Hermione as well as he did, she would have seemed at peace. But Harry knew better. There was nothing joyous about the way she moved about, blasphemous when you consider just how much Hermione loved books and knowledge. This was clearly busy work, something to keep her brilliant mind occupied.

Harry watched her for a few seconds, a sad smile on his face, before Hermione, without ever looking at him, spoke over her shoulder.

"You could help, you know?" she said curtly.

"I wouldn't know where to put anything." Harry admitted. "Organization is not one of my strong suits."

"I suppose you're right." she replied as she placed a particularly large tome on the top shelf of the closest shelf to her. "How did the meeting go?"

"Kingsley is the Minister now and I got to embarrass Fudge."

"Really?" her voice suggested that she was asking because she thought it was required of her, not because she actually cared.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked as he moved gently towards Hermione, stepping in front of her so that he could see her properly. Her eyes, sharp and warm, flashed up at Harry's, flooded with anger. But that only lasted a second as they soften and tears began to well up in them.

Hermione Granger had never been a particularly weepy person. At least not when she was sad. Frustration had caused more tears over the years than despair. Certainly anger had been a large cause of her tears. They had spent years living with Ron after all.

But rarely sadness and it was clear that sadness plaguing Hermione Granger. Of course, it had been plaguing everyone for the better part of a week but this was something new. Harry had seen Hermione mourn for Sirius and for Dumbledore. She had mourned for Dobby and sobbed at the memorial for Fred and so many others.

However, Hermione's sadness typically lasted only a day or two before she pulled herself together and moved on. She was certainly still sad, still in mourning but she refused to allow it to bring her down.

Which meant that this was something new.

"Hermione?"

Hermione cleared her throat, her eyes sinking to the floor.

"Lavender Brown died this morning."

Lavender had been attacked by Fenrir Greyback during the Battle. It had been a particularly monstrous assault with almost half her face and neck torn away. Parvati Patil had found her underneath the Grand Staircase covered in blood and barely alive. Madam Pomfrey had taken one look at her and reportedly told Parvati that there was nothing that she could do for her because the damage was so extensive.

Harry couldn't fathom damage so great that Madam Pomfrey couldn't help it but unfortunately that was the truth of the situation. Almost minutes after the Battle, she had been transferred to St. Mungo's.

They had said the same thing as Madam Pomfrey. Apparently, the nature of lycanthropy meant that a fair number of standard potions and cures were downright useless in trying to heal her. Bill Weasley had experienced a much lesser version of this on the night that Dumbledore had died.

"Oh." Harry said simply. That's all he could say.

"She was in our year." Hermione choked out. "I didn't even like her that much but she didn't deserve to die."

"No one does."

"Even Voldemort?" Hermione asked, the anger clearly creeping back into her voice. "This was all his fault, Harry. All of it. Didn't he deserve to die?"

Harry had wrestled with this for months. Harry didn't believe in killing people but he knew that there was no saving Riddle and certainly no capturing him.

The only way to save the world was to kill one man. For most, they would have made that trade without a second thought. But Harry had seen firsthand the impact of death and what it did to people. He had also seen what murder does to people.

But Voldemort had killed hundreds of people. He would have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds more if Harry hadn't stopped him.

Does that mean that he deserved death?

"He deserved to be stopped. We both know that death was the only way to do that."

"I don't know." Hermione admitted.

"Neither do I, to be honest. This is about as morally gray as we can get."

"Yeah." Hermione replied before looking at the letter in his hands. "What's that?"

Harry handed the letter to Hermione. "It's from Kingsley."

Hermione took the envelope from Harry's hands and ripped it open, withdrawing the letter from inside and scanning it quickly. Harry followed Hermione's eyes as she read it once, twice, three times before she finally let the paper fall to her sides.

She looked surprised.

"What is it?" Harry asked, despite knowing part of the answer.

"A job offer." Hermione replied. "Kingsley wants me to be the Deputy Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He wants me to start a research group designed to find a better balance between what house elves want and how the Ministry can serve them better."

It was Hermione's dream job, handed to her on a silver platter. But Harry knew Hermione and there was a reason that she wasn't jumping up for joy at the moment. After years of fighting for respect among her peers, she likely didn't want to have something this important simply handed to her.

Like everything else since her eleventh birthday, she wanted to work for it.

"Hermione?"

"I need to think." Hermione mumbled before wandering out of the room. He hadn't seen Hermione like this before. In their early years at Hogwarts, Hermione had been plagued by indecision, leading to things like the Time Turner incident. But since Voldemort's return, Hermione had focused and become more decisive.

This was more than simple indecision. This choice would fundamentally change her life and how she would be perceived for years. It also meant skipping her last year at Hogwarts, something she had been very excited about when McGonagall reassured her that she would be allowed to return to Hogwarts after taking a year off.

With Hermione gone to ponder her life, Harry found himself truly alone for the first time today. Deciding he wanted that to remain true, he walked out of the castle's entrance, wandering the grounds aimlessly.

Harry stopped momentarily at Hagrid's hut which remained a charred mess. Hagrid had been admitted to St. Mungo's with a severe case of acromantula poisoning from his time in the woods. Even Harry had to chuckle and admit that there was some levels of irony that just couldn't be imagined until they happened.

For nearly two hours, Harry mosied and meandered around the grounds until just before sunset, Harry ended up at the remains of the Quidditch Pitch. None of the goal remained upright, although one of them had only lost the circular goal of the top, leaving a giant golden pole sticking out of the ground.

Looking up, Harry noticed a singular broom floating in front of where the goals used to be. Squinting in a vain attempt to figure out who it was, Harry discovered who it was when they flew towards him, red hair whipping across his face.

It had been far too long since Ron had gotten his hair cut, leading to his hair nearly covering his face as he landed next to Harry.

"Long day, mate?" Ron said as he collapsed onto the ground next to where Harry stood. In that moment, Harry became intensely aware of just how different things appeared for the two of them. Ron wore an old Quidditch jersey with the sleeves ripped off, showcasing his now muscular arms and a robe that hung loosely from his body.

On the other hand, Harry wore a black suit with a form fitting black robe and a new pair of glasses that had been purchased for him after his others had been shattered in the celebration of Voldemort's death.

It had only been a few days but already things were changing drastically.

"You could say that." Harry said with a sigh before sitting next to Ron, suit be damned. "I doubt I will ever get used to eight hour Wizengamot meetings."

"Then just pick a proxy and have them go for you." Ron replied. "You know that you could just take your millions and walk away, right? No one will blame you if you never work another day in your life."

"That's not me."

"It would be me if I could pull it off."

"No, it wouldn't." Harry countered. "I've seen you when you get bored. You're miserable."

"That's a fair point." Ron admitted. "Hermione seemed off about something when I saw her about an hour ago. Do you know anything about it?"

"She didn't tell you?"

"Nope."

"Well, if she didn't tell you, I'm not going to be the one to blab about it." Harry chuckled. "We've both seen Hermione's wrath."

"Bloody hell, we have." Ron answered.

For several more minutes, they simply sat in silence as the sun finished its decrescendo behind the mountains surrounding the castle.

"What are you going to do next?" Harry asked.

"Go to bed?"

"I meant with your life. I've spent years thinking, breathing and living to try and kill Voldemort. I've done that. What do we do next?"

"Dunno." Ron admitted. "Haven't given it too much thought."

"Really? It's all I can think about." Harry replied. "Hermione thinks she's going to go back to school."

"Yeah, I've been trying to talk her out of that."

"Why?" Harry asked, stunned. "You know how important finishing school is to her."

"I know but if we want to make things work, I think we need to be together. If she goes off to school, there's no way we'll work."

"You aren't coming back?"

"Not if Merlin himself came back to teach."

"Really?" Harry questioned with a healthy sense of skepticism.

"OK. I may come back if Merlin were here but unless that happens, I'm done with school." Ron admitted. "I might look at the Ministry or maybe I'll help George out a bit. He'll need it."

"Yeah."

That's about all there was to say about George right now. He hadn't spoken to anyone in days, working on fixing the castle mostly in isolation. On the rare occasion that anyone heard something out of him, it was typically a scream of exasperation or rage, accompanied by a swear and then a large explosion of sorts.

Harry hoped that George would talk to someone soon or he feared that George would be eaten alive by rage.

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure. Nothing seems to be a good fit. I'm not going to sit by and do nothing. I don't want to be a full time Wizengamot member for the rest of my life and I am most certainly not joining the Aurors."

"Really? I thought that was all you wanted."

"I've seen enough death and destruction for one lifetime."

"I suppose." Ron replied. "I think I would enjoy being an Auror but I don't think they'll take me if I haven't finished school."

"You could always talk to Kingsley. I'm certain that he would make a recommendation for you."

"Maybe." Ron said as he stood and grabbed his broom. "I'm going to go find Hermione and see if I can't get her to talk to me."

"Good luck." Harry chortled.

"I'll need it."

Harry sat and waited for the sun to finish setting before he moved. By the time he began his hike back to the castle, the grounds were completely black, making it almost impossible to see where he was going. And yet, he made his way without any major catastrophe.

The first thing Harry noticed when he got to the Common Room was that Hermione was not among those gathered. In fact, with the Weasleys planning on returning to the Burrow the next day, the Weasleys had scattered to their sleeping places, likely to pack.

Others were just as likely to try and grab some much needed privacy before they returned to a home with that many people living in it.

Harry noticed Ginny was sitting by the fire.

"Have you seen Hermione?"

If Ginny looked disappointed that Harry was asking about someone other than her, she didn't show it. Harry knew that a conversation between the two of them was coming. They had spent too many years circling each other to completely avoid this conversation.

But it was going to have to wait for a little while longer.

"She said she was going to get some air. I think I heard her mention something about the Astronomy Tower."

"Thanks." Harry said with a grin before racing out of the room and climbing the several levels until he reached the top of the Astronomy Tower.

Sure enough, there she was, seated on the edge of the tower. She wasn't close enough to the edge that Harry was worried about her jumping but it was harrowing to see, nonetheless.

"I'm not in the mood, Ron."

"Well, I'm not Ron so no need to snap at me."

Hermione's head flipped back to Harry, followed by her hair. She looked much like she had earlier.

Confused.

A problem that took Hermione Granger hours to solve was certainly a big one.

"Sorry, Harry. I just…..I don't know."

"Wow, that must have been hard." Harry laughed as he leaned against the rail next to Hermione. "Talk to me."

"I should be talking to Ron." Hermione said nervously.

"You can talk to whoever you want." Harry replied. "Talk to Ron or me or Ginny or whoever. Why do you think you have to talk to Ron?"

Hermione didn't answer. Instead, she turned away from Harry, looking out over the Hogwarts grounds.

"I want things to work. With Ron, I mean." Hermione muttered before turning back to Harry. "I just don't know how. He's so dense sometimes. But he's dealing with his own things right now. It all seemed like a good idea during the Battle, but….but…"

"But Fred was alive when that happened." Harry replied, referencing Ron and Hermione's...encounter in the Room of Requirement. "Things have changed."

"Did I miss my chance, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Four years looking at him, waiting for him to say something. I was so worried that it would ruin our friendship. So, I waited. Did I wait too long?"

"I don't know, Hermione." Harry said, understanding exactly how she felt. "It's the same with Ginny and I. I don't think it's going to work. There's been too much in the way."

"But you spent the entire time we were…..camping looking at her on the map."

"I did. But I think I was just trying to get back to the way things were." Harry replied as he hopped up onto the parapet next to Hermione. "I thought that was possible. But I had no idea just how much could change in one night."

"A lot."

"So many people died and so much happened." Harry said. It was at this moment that Harry realized he hadn't told anyone exactly what had happened in the Forest yet. No one other than Dumbledore's portrait had known exactly what had occurred when Lord Voldemort had attempted to kill him.

But still, Hermione agreed with a nod. She may have not known the full details of what the Battle had entailed but even without that, everyone had experienced a lot.

"I don't think it's going to work with Ginny and I." Harry admitted. "I spent a year away and she spent a year enduring what sounds like the worst kind of hell at a place that she loved. I wouldn't be shocked if there are some students that still don't come back. No one wants to come back and relieve that kind of torture."

"I suppose. I couldn't imagine not coming back next year."

"So you aren't taking the job?" Harry asked. "You know, Ron was wondering what was up with you. Why didn't you tell him about it?"

"Because I know what he would say. He would tell me that I would be choosing school over him."

"Maybe you are?" Harry suggested. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But if that's your choice, you are putting school higher, even if it's for just a year."

"But it is just a year."

"But is Ron going to consider that?" Harry asked. "He's not that patient. We both know that."

"You're right. I just wish that I could talk to my parents. They would know what to do."

Hermione had sent her parents to Australia under an assumed identity before they had left on their "trip." She had modified their memories so that they would be unable to remember their lives as Hermione's parents without some serious work.

"Any luck finding them?"

"I know that Mr. Weasley has been in contact with the Australian Ministry. But they haven't even really started looking. Mr. Weasley did reassure me that once they started looking, finding the records of their move shouldn't be hard to locate."

"That's good." Harry said reassuringly. "What do you think they would want you to do?"

"My father always told me that I needed to do what was right for me. No matter how hard or easy that might be."

"Does that mean he would want you to take the job?"

"No." Hermione said with a shake of her head. "What's right for me is to finish my education. That's all I have ever wanted from the day that I found out about Hogwarts. I've spent a lot of time looking out for others-"

"You can say me, Hermione." Harry said with a chuckle. "You deserve to put yourself first for once. Don't think that I haven't noticed the fact that you haven't done that in years. I appreciate everything you did and will do for me but you need to look out for yourself now. I can take care of myself."

"I know you can. I just wanted to help keep you as safe as possible. I don't know what I would do if anything had happened to you."

"Well, we'll never know."

"Aren't you going to join the Aurors? That seems dangerous enough."

"No, I'm not." Harry confirmed. "I'm done fighting for awhile. Kingsley is the Minister now and I have faith that he's up to the task. I need to take some time for me too."

"What are you going to do with that time?"

"I haven't the foggiest but I know that you should go back to school."

Hermione nodded. "I have to find my parents first. But if I have that done by September, I'll be back here for the first day of classes."

"That's good. I'm certain that McGonagall will be happy to hear that."

"You could always come back with me." Hermione stated.

He was aware that the offer would be made for him as well. But Harry wasn't certain that he would even want to come back to Hogwarts. So much had changed since the last time that he had been a student in the castle, it was almost as if it was a different place entirely.

Plus, Harry would be constantly reminded by the deaths of so many friends, walking by the places where they died.

Still, he would be lying if he said that the idea didn't at least partially intrigue him. Hogwarts had always been his home and the ability to come back to it instead of forging a new path into the world would be comforting at the very least.

Plus, he might get to play Quidditch again.

"School has never really been my strong suit." Harry admitted.

"You were a bit distracted before."

"Who's to say that I won't find something else to distract me?"

"Like Cho Chang?" Hermione teased as Harry felt his face turn red. "I saw you talking to her after the memorial yesterday."

"She looked upset." Harry replied, proving that he truly was the master at stating the obvious.

"We were at a funeral, Harry. Everyone was upset." Hermione shot back as she leapt down from the edge of the tower, landing at Harry's feet. "You didn't go racing over to GInny when she started crying."

Sometimes, on the rarest of occasions, Harry despised how sharp his best friend was.

Now was one of those times.

Nothing seemed to escape her notice and the older she got, the less she seemed to care about typical social boundaries. Instead, she simply stated what she had observed.

When it was clear that Harry was too dumbstruck to answer her, Hermione let him off the hook.

"You're going to have to talk to her, you know."

"I'm well aware." Harry said blandly. As Hermione opened her mouth to speak, Harry cut her off. "And I know it will need to be soon."

"Just checking. Wouldn't want to have wasted my time keeping you alive only to have Ginny off you less than a week after Voldemort."

"That would just be a waste." Harry said with a roll of his eyes. As Hermione walked by Harry, she stopped and placed a small kiss on his cheek.

"Go to bed, Harry. You look like hell." Hermione said before walking back towards the stairs and down into the bowels of the castle. Harry looked towards where Hermione had disappeared until he could no longer hear her footsteps before turning back towards the open sky.

Tonight was a particularly clear night as Harry looked out from the Astronomy Tower. The Tower was the tallest structure on the entire Hogwarts ground, which allowed Harry a complete view of the school grounds. The full moon gave Harry the shadowed sight of the Quidditch pitch, largely destroyed by the Death Eaters and untouched since the Battle. It also let him see the castle below, which still featured massive holes in parts of the castle.

But more than all of that, Harry was forced into remembering a night almost two years earlier when Snape had killed Dumbledore, causing his body to careen off the Tower and land with a crash on the ground below.

In that moment, Harry had known who his enemy was. He had almost entirely forgotten about Voldemort or even Malfoy himself.

Snape was the man that he needed to kill.

But now, with the reveal of Snape and Dumbledore's machinations, everything he remembered about that night felt wrong. The way he had chased Snape through the battle, dodging spellfire and debris onto the grounds of the school no longer seemed as urgent as it had then.

But Snape's face and his reaction to Harry's chosen insult: "coward." That was a moment that Harry would never forget. He understood now why Snape had reacted the way he had. Snape had been many things. Intolerable, cruel, conflicted and pathetic but certainly not a coward. Without his work, they never would have won.

Without Snape, Voldemort lives.

Still, Harry felt some small amount of joy of the fact that Snape had died. He knew that he shouldn't be quite so petty but Harry didn't care. Snape could have spent years simply ignoring him. He could have pretended that he didn't exist or treated Harry with as much disrespect as he did everyone else.

Instead, Snape had gone out of his way for six years to treat Harry like he was less than human and try as he might, it wasn't something that Harry found himself capable of forgiving. No one else knew that Snape had been on their side. It seemed that most of the conversation between Riddle and himself in the Great Hall had somehow remained unheard by the crowd surrounding them. Voldemort had died knowing that Snape had betrayed him while everyone else still assumed that Snape was a traitor to their cause.

Currently, Harry had no reason to correct that assumption.

Harry was tired of thinking about Snape. So, after cursing his name under his breath, Harry walked away from the edge of the Tower and back into the castle itself.

As he made his way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry suddenly came to the realization that this was likely the last time that he would step foot inside the castle. Hogwarts wasn't a place that you came back to often after you left unless you worked for the Department of Magical Education or were a high-ranking official at the Ministry, something Harry had no interest in currently.

Normally, Harry would have taken this time to appreciate the castle where he had spent the best years of his life. But most of that castle was gone or damaged almost beyond repair. Only a few parts of the castle had remained untouched, making it feel as if it was a completely different place entirely.

And yet, he could still feel the magic around him coursing through its halls. Hogwarts had stood for a millennium and even though the castle was scarred almost beyond recognition currently, Harry had no doubt that the castle would return to its former glory.

Just like the rest of the country, Hogwarts had taken its fair share of blows over the last year. But like everyone else, Harry was confident that the castle would recover and be stronger than ever, if not a bit different.

After all, with everything that had happened, how could anyone come back the same?


	5. Five

Harry took his time looking around the four poster bed that he had slept in most nights since his eleventh birthday for socks and other random articles of clothing that he might have missed the previous night while packing. Following Weasley family tradition, the rest of the family had waited to pack until this morning.

Thankfully, there was no particular rush to get back to the Burrow for anyone other than Hermione, who had expressed frustration that she was the only one packed.

When Harry had mentioned to her that after seven years she shouldn't have been surprised, all he got in return was a cold glare and a cocked eyebrow.

Finally, just before noon, the entire family gathered in the Gryffindor Common Room, ready to go back to The Burrow. One last time, Harry looked around the Common Room. He felt like there should have been some final goodbye to be said.

Instead, Harry simply smirked, turned and walked into the flames, shouting "THE BURROW!" as he did so. After several seconds of flailing and falling, Harry was launched into the living room of The Burrow. As Harry stood, brushing off the dirt and grime from having traveled via Floo, Harry noticed just how different the Burrow had looked.

When the Weasleys had fled the Burrow to go and live with Aunt Muriel, some of the protective wards had fallen around the house. Within a few days, the Death Eaters had broken through the rest of them and entered the home. They had left the house standing but it was clear that they had gone through the house and caused a terrible amount of damage.

Some of the walls were missing and others were scorched black as if the Death Eaters had attempted to burn the house down. Thankfully, the Burrow was more resilient than anyone could have ever given it credit for, standing up to the flames and destruction. Still, it was clear that there was going to be a lot of work to be done to get the marks of the Death Eater's occupation cleared up.

Mrs. Weasley came through the fireplace last. She looked up and sighed at the sight of the house. Harry knew that she had visited the house at least once since the Battle. He can't imagine what her reaction was like the first time she saw the destruction that had been brought upon her home.

"Well, let's get settled in then." Mrs. Weasley whispered, her eyes darting to the clock in the corner of the room.

It was at this moment that Harry realized that the clock had changed. Harry saw that he and Hermione had been given hands, likely at some point just after their escape from Bill and Fleur's wedding. How exactly the hands had been added to track them, he couldn't be certain and to be honest, he didn't particularly care.

But, as expected, it was Fred's hand that had changed the most. While everyone else's hands currently read HOME and were a bright silver color, Fred's remained locked on mortal peril. But it was the color that was the largest indicator of Fred's death. Instead of silver like the rest, it was black and covered with a rust-like material.

Everyone stood in silence, staring at the clock as Mr. Weasley walked towards it. Gently, he reached up and took Fred's clock hand in his own, pulling it off the clock. The moment that the clock hand snapped, Harry could hear Mrs. Weasley break down into sobs behind him. A moment later, Ginny's hand found its way into his left hand and her head came down on his shoulder.

For a brief second, he hesitated before he turned, letting Ginny's head collapse into the center of his chest before wrapping his arms around her. Over the last few days, everyone had been able to work out their sorrow by helping to fix the castle. Now, there was nothing to do but face Fred's loss head on.

Ginny was one of the strongest people that he knew but even people who possessed strength like hers needed to be held up by others on occasion. Right now, Harry wasn't thinking about their past or their future. Instead, he focused on the young woman in his arms, tears soaking the front of his shirt as she mourned her brother's death, made fresh once again by their return home.

As everyone else fixated on the clock, Harry noticed George, steel faced and unmoved, simply turn and walk out of the room, heading towards the back part of the property that the Burrow sat on. Everyone watched him go, unsure of just how to speak with the man who was a twin no longer.

The plan for the day was relatively simple. Everyone was going to spend the day replacing, repairing and restoring the Burrow to its former glory. This would give everyone another opportunity to bury their pain in their work.

At least until someone came across the first sign of their fallen brother and then the wound be torn open once more.

On the whole, however, the plan was a good one. The Weasleys needed something resembling normalcy and returning the Burrow to working order would be one of the best ways to provide that.

Once Ginny dried her tears, she gave Harry a weak smile and stalked off towards the stairs and her room. Harry watched her go, astonishingly conflicted on how he felt about the fiery redhead. On one hand, she was still everything that he had ever loved about her: strong-willed, confident in herself and her ideals and capable of doing just about anything she set her mind to.

And yet, she felt different to Harry. Maybe he was the different one. He _was_ different, there was no doubt in that. Maybe nothing had changed in her and it was simply Harry that had been changed. But the death of a family member before their time changed everyone around them. It had changed Harry and it would have changed Ginny even more so.

After a few moments, Harry realized that everyone had already left the living room to begin their work, leaving him alone, staring into the space where Ginny had once stood. Grabbing his things, Harry marched from the room, climbing the stairs (only pausing a moment as he passed Ginny's closed door where he could hear Hermione and Ginny conversing) towards Ron's room.

When Harry entered the room, he could hardly recognize the space. The Death Eaters had clearly identified Ron's room and had turned the place upside down. His bed was quite literally in pieces, several large ones thrown across the room.

One of the pieces had been thrown out of the window and rested on the balcony outside his window.

Books and papers were thrown everywhere. Harry hadn't ever realized just how much paper Ron had in his room since it seemed so counter to his personality. But then, he looked down and noticed that much of it seemed to stem from books of Quidditch strategies, old comic books and dozens of children's books about Muggles.

That seemed more like Ron.

Harry had to laugh as he looked at the walls and noticed that one of the only things that seemed to remain untouched were the Chudley Cannon posters on the walls. They were still in pristine condition.

"Did you charm those posters?" Harry asked, thinking they looked a bit too unscathed for the state of the room.

"You better believe it." Ron said with a smirk as he started the process of fixing his bed, a giant chunk of bed flying back through the window between them. "I wasn't taking any chances with Ginny living here. She may have tried to set them on fire."

"Good choice, mate." Harry chuckled as he started re-assembling some of the shelves that had been hung on the wall over the bed.

It took them nearly four hours to get the room back to something that resembled the way Harry had remembered it. The worst part was that all of the books had to be assembled in order before they were able to repair them. They discovered this after they attempted to simply repair the books from the floor, only for them to assemble into one monstrosity of a book, complete with seventeen covers.

Once that was finished, Harry and Ron separated with Ron going to help George with his room while Harry went outside to help Bill and Mr. Weasley repair the roof. Thankfully, that was a relatively easy task once they had found most of the tiles. The ones that they couldn't repair were simply replicated and put in place of the old ones.

After roughly six hours of work, the Weasley family sat in silence for a quick dinner before everyone returned to their rooms to change into more formal attire. Once everyone had changed, they all walked out of the back door and processed towards the large oak tree that rested on the edge of the pond near the back of their property.

Under that tree, one grave had already been dug. The marker above the grave read:

Frederick Gideon Weasley  
April 1, 1978-May 2, 1998  
Beloved Son and Brother

LET ME OUT OF HERE!

Harry looked at the stone and then looked at Charlie, who had come up next to him.

"Who put that on there?" Harry asked, fighting back a fit of laughter.

"Bill and I did." Charlie said with a smirk. "We figured he would like it."

"You outdid yourself." Harry replied. "He would have loved that."

As Harry spoke, Ginny moved to stand next to the marker. Of all of his siblings, it was no secret to any of them that Ginny had been his favorite. Almost every plot that Fred and George had designed had involved Ginny in some way, often on Fred's specific request. They had been the closest siblings of the family, other than Fred and George obviously, so it made sense for her to be the one to speak.

"Fred wouldn't have wanted this." Ginny said, tears already beginning to form in her eyes as her eyes scanned her family. "But he's not here and he's a hero so we're going to honor him the way he should be honored."

Ginny turned and placed a hand on the tombstone and spoke softly.

"Fred was the mastermind of the family. Some of the ideas that Fred came up with were outrageous, dangerous even. But that was his place. He was the thinker, the idea's man. When Fred and George were coming up new products, it was Fred's job to think outside the box, to come up with something insane. Then, George would take that creativity and run with it, applying his masterful spellwork to create something out of this world."

"It was the same way at home. When a prank needed planning, Fred would come up with the most ridiculous ideas and somehow, someway, George would execute these ideas to the letter. Of course, that sometimes meant that Ron's teddy bear got turned into a spider-"

"We don't need to talk about that!" Ron bellowed, his face red in embarrassment as everyone turned to look at him, laughing.

"I disagree." Ginny said with a playful smirk. "And I know Fred would too. One of Fred's greatest joys was taking the mickey out on Ron. He knew just how to rile him up and he knew just how Ron would react. The number of times that he went out of his way just to annoy Ron is too high to count."

"But there was never any doubt that he loved all of us. Fred may have been a terror sometimes but he was also fiercely protective of the people that he loved. It's why he and George attacked Malfoy to protect Harry. It's why they hated anytime anyone thought they could call Hermione a Mudblood and it's why they very nearly killed Warrington when he tried to attack Angelina Johnson in the hallway their third year."

Harry sneaked a glance at Mrs. Weasley who appeared both shocked and amused by the stories of her two sons. While Harry was certain that nothing would have surprised that woman, he also knew that there was no way she could have known about everything the twins got up to at Hogwarts.

"There is nothing that we can do to bring Fred back. But he can still live on through us. By bringing people joy and making others laugh, we can continue to do the work that Fred decided he wanted his entire life to be about. I think that the whole world can use some laughter right about now."

With that, Ginny had said her piece. With a flourish of her wand, George's grave was suddenly marked by a bush of red roses. They were beautiful and identical in color to the sigil of Gryffindor House, something that had certainly been an intentional choice by Ginny.

Stepping away from the marker, Ginny took her place in between Ron and Harry. Ron took Ginny and pulled her in for a hug, whispering something in her ear that Harry couldn't hear. The rest of the family simply stood and watched, almost as if they were waiting for Fred to jump out of the grave and declare that this was one big practical joke.

Unfortunately, that never happened and the grave remained still. Eventually, Mrs. Weasley stepped up to the tombstone, placing a kiss gently on the top before she turned back to the remodeled Burrow, walking through her family as she made her way back inside her home. Once Mrs. Weasley had moved, the rest of the family followed suit in silence, each of them placing a single gentle kiss on the top of the grave.

All of them except for George.

During the brief ceremony, George had stood under the tree, away from the rest of the family. He did not cry, appear angry or distraught in any way. He didn't appear as though he was feeling anything.

It reminded Harry of how he felt after Sirius had died at the Department of Mysteries.

Empty.

Once everyone changed back into their regular clothing, the younger generation of the house all gathered together and made their way out to the far side of the pond where the grove sat. While George was not particularly excited about going with them, Ginny had made it abundantly clear that he would be going.

Ginny was the only person that could have gotten away with ordering George to do anything right now and she took full advantage.

Once they were near the grove, Bill and Charlie led the rest of them to a small area next to the pond where a small fire ring had been place. According to the two oldest Weasleys, they had created this hidden oasis to hide from Molly and go fishing, something they hadn't done since Bill lived at the Burrow.

It was also where they hid their firewhiskey, Bill informed them as he withdrew a giant bottle of Ogden's from his jacket. Immediately, Hermione protested because Ginny was still under seventeen.

Bill's response was a classic.

"Relax. It's a toast to our brother. We're not trying to get Ginny so drunk that she attempts to use a Firebolt underwater."

"Can you do that?" Ron immediately asked. Bill shot Ron a pained look while Charlie punched him in the arm.

Each of them were given a small glass filled to the brim with Bill's bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey. Once they were all assembled in a circle, Bill raised his glass.

"To Fred. We'll miss you, ya son of a bitch."

In a single motion, everyone threw back their shot of firewhiskey. Harry found that his second experience with the substance was better than his first. He very much enjoyed the burning of the whiskey and the warmth he felt as it slid down his throat and into his stomach.

Once the toast was finished, Bill collected the glasses and then conjured some chairs while Charlie quickly started a fire. Harry took a seat by the fire with Ginny and Hermione while Ron, Percy and Charlie grabbed fishing poles, attempting to fish by what little light was left as the sun finally began to set in the distance.

Bill stood between the two groups with another glass of firewhiskey still in his hand, Fleur linked to his arm, her head on his shoulder.

For a few moments, Harry sat in silence, content. Much like the others, he was still mourning Fred's death but knew that he had never felt safer than he did in this moment. As the rest of them enjoyed the rare warm May evening, Harry noticed George slip away. Bill also noticed and moved to follow him before Harry stood, motioning for Bill to stay with his family.

Harry turned and followed George's path back towards the house until he found George standing in front of his brother's grave under the oak tree. Not hiding his presence, Harry walked up next to George, standing next to him as he stared at Fred's tombstone in silence.

"I never had a brother, let alone a twin. So, I won't lie to you and tell you that I know what you're going through because the truth is that I don't." Harry admitted. "I would never be able to understand the kind of connection that you had with Fred."

"But you know what it's like to lose someone." George muttered to Harry's surprise. George hadn't spoken to anyone since Fred's death. He had almost forgotten what George's voice even sounded like.

"I do." Harry agreed as he attempted to get over the shock.

"You lost your parents and Sirius." George stated again.

"I was too young to remember losing my parents but I did lose Sirius."

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not like it used to." Harry replied. "I used to feel it in my bones every day when I woke up. Now, it only really hurts when something reminds me of him."

"How do you even stay at Grimmauld Place then?"

"I've learned to cope with the hurt." Harry answered. "It's something you learn to deal with. You either learn to deal with it or that pain will consume you. It will destroy you."

"I've never lost someone like that." George whispered as he knelt down in front of Fred's grave. "I wasn't that close to Cedric and Sirius didn't mean to me what he meant to you. Neither did Dumbledore or Moody or any of them. I was upset when they died, don't get me wrong. But it didn't mean to me what it meant to you."

"Just like Fred's death didn't mean to me what it did to you." Harry shot back.

Suddenly, George stood and turned back to Harry, tears in his eyes. He took his hands and placed them on Harry's shoulders, grabbing the collar of Harry's shirt and pulling him closer.

"He was your brother too." George said, fighting through the tears that he had been repressing for days. "You said so yesterday at the ceremony. Do you know how much that meant to me? To Mum and Dad? To my family?"

"You were Ron's best friend from day one. But you became our family, Harry. You and Hermione, both. You are as much my family as Bill or Charlie or….Fred."

Harry was speechless. George had never been the type to take anything seriously and so he had never heard either of the twins speak so candidly. He knew that he meant a great deal to the Weasleys just like they did for him. But to hear it from the member of the family least likely to say it hit Harry hard.

"When Fred died, I thought my world had ended. Fred was the other half of my brain. He finished my thoughts, he knew exactly what I needed and what I wanted at any given moment. In a bloody flash, he was gone and I thought that the world couldn't get any darker."

"Then you came out of the forest in Hagrid's arms."

At the mention of this memory, George sank to the ground, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. Harry dropped to the ground in front of him, almost dragged to the ground by the pressure of George's hands that had remained of Harry's shoulders as he had fallen.

"I knew that Fred would have wanted us to keep fighting. But when Hagrid carried you back to the castle, any hope that I had of continuing that fight disappeared. Just when I thought that things couldn't get worse, they got worse. They got a lot worse."

"I've spent the last two days thinking about why that moment hurt so much. I thought that it was just like anyone else. With you dead, Voldemort had won. But that's not why I was so upset. I realized that, in that moment, I thought that I had lost a second brother."

"George…."

"I can't get that memory out of my head. When I sleep, I see Fred and then I see you." George admitted.

"George, I'm not dead."

"I know." George muttered, almost to himself. "I know you're not. But the shock of that memory still haunts me."

Suddenly, George looked up at Harry.

"It's like I'm talking to a dead man." George said without knowing just how close to the truth he was.

"I'm right here." Harry said firmly. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

"Good." George said with a smile full of relief. "Good."

"George, you know that we're all here for you. Me and the rest of your family. Anytime that you need to talk, please talk." Harry told him. "Please, don't hide from us."

"I just didn't know what to do. I still don't." George admitted weakly. "People expected us to be the funny ones all the time. I'm just worried that they'll still expect that from me."

"I don't think anyone is feeling particularly funny right now." Harry replied before adding, "They just want you. Right now, they'll take you in whatever form they can get you. The funny will come back eventually."

"You're sure?"

"I'm seventeen years old. I'm not sure of anything." Harry said with a grin.

George actually managed a brief smile and a chuckle at that.

"Thanks, Harry."

"No need. Just go say hi to your family."

"I will."

Harry watched as George stood and started towards the pond oasis path. Once he was out of sight, Harry moved to follow when someone spoke behind him.

"It's about time."

Harry turned to see Ginny standing behind him, a gentle smile on her face.

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you were there to listen when he finally decided to talk."

"I'm glad I could be there." Harry said honestly. Harry felt the same way that George did. The Weasleys were his family and he would do anything for them.

"Me too." Ginny said as she stepped closer to him, only a few inches separating them. For a moment, the pair of them froze, neither saying a word as they simply stared into the eyes of the other. Suddenly, Ginny leaned forward, her lips gently pressing against Harry's. The warmth of her lips was everything that Harry remembered it being, everything that he had fought to return to when he had been hiding from the world.

But something still seemed off.

"Ginny….." Harry started as he broke away from her. "I-"

"I know." Ginny replied. "We'll talk more tomorrow."

Ginny leaned forward once more and placed a small peck on his cheek before following her brother back to the pond where the rest of the Weasleys waited. Harry stood still, not knowing exactly what to do.

In all his life, Harry couldn't remember feeling more conflicted. But there was always tomorrow. Tonight, Harry would rejoin the rest of his family and simply enjoy being safe and with the family that loved him.

The rest he would deal with tomorrow.


	6. Six

Harry awoke the next morning to find that the clear skies of the previous day had given way to clouds and a torrential downpour. When Harry stood and looked out of the window of Ron's room, he could barely make out the pond, a distance of barely one hundred meters from the house.

After grabbing a change of clothes followed by a quick shower, Harry made his way downstairs to the kitchen. It was early when Harry reached the dining room so he was surprised when he saw that Hermione was already seated at the table, a bowl of oatmeal in front of her. The bowl appeared to be forgotten, cast aside for the picture she held in her hand.

It was one of the few that Harry could ever remember seeing of Hermione's family. It appeared to be a couple of years old. The three Grangers sat on opposite sides of a booth at a Muggle dinner while on summer vacation. All of three of them grinned wildly at the camera, their expressions frozen oddly.

It was then that Harry remembered that Muggle photos didn't move. In that moment, Harry realized just how immersed in the magical world he was. At ten years old, Harry would have thought that moving pictures were insane.

At almost eighteen, Harry couldn't imagine a world in which they stood still.

"Where was this?"

"We had gone to Dublin for the weekend." Hermione said, her mind clearly lost in the memory. "Mum wanted to visit a museum on the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland. It was a very interesting exhibit for someone who knows that at least half the history of the church is magic in disguise."

"I'm certain that you had a blast."

"I did." Hermione said, her eyes finally turning to fix on Harry. "It was just before sixth year, the last time that everything really made sense in the world."

"I know." Harry replied as he took a seat next to Hermione. "What a world, right?"

"Yeah."

Harry noticed that even though Hermione was responding to their conversation, she wasn't really paying that much attention. It was clear to him that Hermione's mind was fixed firmly on the photo in front of her and likely her parents.

"When are you going to go find them?"

"Soon." Hermione confirmed. "I want to leave by the beginning of June at the latest. They've lost almost a whole year of their lives. They deserve to have it back."

"Are you worried about what they'll say?"

"No, we talked about it before I did it." Hermione replied. "I didn't tell them when I was going to do it but they knew that it was an option that was on the table. Then, about a week before I was intending to come here, I saw someone in an oddly fitting raincoat sitting on a bench about thirty meters down the street from our house. He was staring at our front door the whole time."

This was all new information to Harry. He had never known that things were so dire for Hermione, although he shouldn't have been surprised. Due to the fact that Hermione lived in a Muggle neighborhood, her house was the hardest to protect.

"Was the Order there too?"

"Thankfully, yes." Hermione replied. "I saw Diggle and a few others hanging around. It was like a cold war on the streets. Both sides obviously knew that the other was there but they couldn't do anything in the middle of a Muggle neighborhood."

"Once I saw the Death Eaters for the first time, I started prepping my parents' false identities. Within a few days, they were completed. Once they were done, I marched into the living room and wiped my parents' memories."

"Merlin."

"They left that night on a plane for Canberra." Hermione whispered, the sadness finally clear in her voice. "I need to go find them, Harry."

"I know."

"I want you to go with me."

That was not the request that Harry was expecting. Of all the people that Harry expected for Hermione to ask, he was certainly towards the top of the list.

But not the very top.

"What about Ron?"

Hermione's immediate answer was silence. Harry didn't press Hermione for an answer. Instead, he simply sat and waited for her to respond. When she did speak, her voice was even and controlled, although he could tell that she was trying to control her emotions.

"I don't know if Ron and I are going to work." Hermione admitted. "And either way, I don't want him to go to Australia with me. He needs to be here for his family. I can't promise how long we'll be gone. It might be for a week, it might be a month. It will all depend on how my parents recover from their ordeal."

Harry had felt that something between the two of them had been off for the last couple of days. Neither of them had spent much time in the company of the other. While it seemed that Hermione was the one driving the distance, Ron didn't appear to be arguing with her, something that did not necessarily bode well for their future together.

But, Harry had to admit the possibility that they were comfortable with their distance, a sign of Ron's increased maturity.

In either case, the current climate in The Burrow was not particularly conducive to a new relationship. Molly frequently wanted everyone in the same room so that she could keep an eye on everyone. That meant that over ten people were often crammed in the Burrow's tiny living room, an impressive feat considering how tall some of the Weasleys were.

"Well, I will definitely go with you." Harry said. "But I think that you need to talk to Ron about this."

"I plan on it." Hermione replied before abruptly changing the subject. "When are you planning on talking to Ginny?"

"Who said I was planning on talking to Ginny?"

"You have barely said two words to her the whole time you've been here. You're prepping to separate yourself from her which you would definitely need to do before you leave."

"I know." Harry admitted softly.

"What changed?" Hermione asked, looking around to ensure that no one was up. "When we were on our camping trip, you stared at that map every single day. You couldn't wait to get back to her."

"I know. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what happened. Part of me thinks that I was looking at Ginny's name, knowing that it was the life I would never have. Even before the Forest…."

Harry's voice trailed off, realizing that he had just mentioned something that he hadn't told anyone yet. At the moment, he wasn't exactly sure how many people he wanted know. Hermione would have been definitely been the first person that he would have told but this was certainly not the way that he wanted that to happen.

"The Forest? The Forest of Dean?"

Harry realized he had a choice. He could lie to Hermione, make up some bullshit story about the Forest of Dean and they would all move on with Hermione never knowing any better. But the moment he considered the idea, Harry felt a sour taste in his mouth. The idea of lying so blatantly to Hermione was out of the question.

Which left only the truth.

"No, the Forbidden Forest." Harry replied, his eyes now firmly fixed on the floor in front of him. "When I gave myself up to Voldemort."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that." Hermione admitted. It was clear to Harry that she had simply been waiting for an opening to discuss this. Why she had waited, Harry couldn't be certain but now that she had her chance, she was going to take it. "Riddle clearly thought you were dead. Why?"

"Because he hit me in the chest with a Killing Curse."

Hermione's face registered no reaction to what Harry said. Instead, she simply stared at him, a blank expression on her face. It was one that Harry had seen on the rare instances when the thousands of processes going on in her brain suddenly came crashing to a screeching halt all at once.

"Can….you explain?"

Harry decided the easiest way would be to explain to her the whole thing. So, he started from the beginning.

"Do you remember the memories that I took from Snape?"

"Yes."

"During the hour that Voldemort stopped the Battle, I went to Dumbledore's office and used them in the Penseive there."

"You mean Snape's office." Hermione said coldly.

"Sort of."

"Excuse me?"

"Let me finish." Harry said, throwing his hands in the air to try and reassure Hermione that he wasn't losing his mind. "In Snape's memories, I saw that he truly was Dumbledore's agent. He had been spying for Dumbledore for years. They orchestrated his death so that Malfoy didn't have to kill him. The curse in his hand was spreading anyway. It would have killed him with a few months if Snape hadn't killed him that night anyway."

Once again, Hermione's face and brain froze in place. All she could muster was a single question: "Why?"

"Snape...well...he, uh, he….loved my mother." Harry said, still a bit disgusted by the idea. "They had met before they went to Hogwarts. During their first few years at school, they were close friends. Then, he called her a Mudblood. I think in that moment, he realized how much he loved her."

"So he called her a Mudblood!?" Hermione roared, almost standing out of her chair.

"That's not what I mean. The moment that he said it, he immediately regretted it. He knew what it had cost him. My mother didn't speak more than a few sentences to him for the rest of her life. When Snape passed the prophecy on to Voldemort and he realized that Voldemort meant to kill my parents, he went to Dumbledore. He became Dumbledore's agent on the condition that he protected them."

"But he didn't."

"Yeah, he didn't. Snape spent the next seventeen years working for Dumbledore in private."

"Why?"

"Two reasons. First: he fought for the memory of my mother. The second….."

"Yes?"

"It's harder to say." Harry admitted, standing and pacing the kitchen. "When Voldemort attacked me in Godric's Hollow, his soul was very unstable. The magic that separated him from his body and gave me my scar is some of the most powerful dark magic that has ever occurred. In that moment, his soul, weak from the number of times that he had divided it, broke again."

"It did what now?"

"When the spell rebounded, his soul broke one last time." Harry repeated. "Then, it latched itself on the only other living thing in the room: me."

This time, Hermione's face didn't freeze. It was the exact opposite, in fact. Harry could read every single process on her face as her mind whirled at a thousand miles a minute.

"So, you were a Horcrux." she finally said, looking up at Harry. "It needed to be destroyed before he could die."

"Yes." Harry confirmed. "The good thing was that I wasn't a true Horcrux. It didn't make me magically impenetrable or anything like that. I simply housed a part of his soul. When I learned of this from Snape's memories, I gave myself up to Voldemort."

"You….let him kill you?" Hermione answered, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"I did."

"How are you alive?"

"Because Voldemort made a mistake. When he brought himself back to life, he used my blood to do so. The same blood that carried my mother's protection."

"He tethered you to him."

"He did." Harry agreed. He should have known that Hermione would understand something in the blink of an eye when it had taken Harry quite awhile to understand. "When he tried to kill me, all he managed to do was kill the piece of his soul inside me. While he could touch me because of my blood, that same blood meant that he could never kill me."

"That's amazing." Hermione replied before looking up at Harry, a question clearly forming her mind. "Harry, I don't mean to be rude but this doesn't seem like something you could have figured out on your own. I'm assuming that Snape's memories didn't leave you a step by step set of instructions on how to get hit with the Killing Curse and not die for a second time."

"It did not." Harry chuckled. "No, I had help."

"From whom?"

"Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore is dead."

"I'm well aware."

"Then how did you have help from him?"

"When Voldemort hit me with the curse, I only knew that I had part of Voldemort's soul inside of me and that it needed to be destroyed."

"That means that you went to Voldemort….intending to die?"

Harry nodded. "One of Snape's memories was a conversation between him and Dumbledore. Dumbledore told him I was a Horcrux and then said that it was exceptionally important that Voldemort kill me personally. Snape was to tell me just before it happened so that I wouldn't fight it."

"Why?"

"Because if I gave myself up to him, I would be able to offer the same protection to the school that my mother had given to me. Also, because if anyone else had killed me, I'm guessing that the fact that Voldemort had my blood would have mattered a lot less."

"This still doesn't explain how you know all this."

"I'm getting there." Harry replied before adjusting his seat and moving on. "When the curse hit me, I died...for a moment."

"Excuse me?"

"When that happened, my soul went to a place somewhere between here and the next life. A limbo of some sorts. Dumbledore was there."

"So is he stuck there? In Limbo for eternity?"

"I don't believe so. I think it was more a representation of him that actually him. To be fair, it had all of his memories and his knowledge so I don't think it makes a difference honestly." Harry said quickly before continuing. "Anyway, Dumbledore explained to me the magic of my mother's blood and how my sacrifice ensured that only the Horcrux had died."

Harry could tell that Hermione seemed to be a bit overloaded. More than likely, she had about a thousand theories and even more questions that she wanted to ask. Instead, she chose just one.

"Who else knows?"

"No one." Harry said softly. "I'll tell Ron someday but other than that, there are large parts of this story that I don't want anyone to know."

"You know we're going to have to tell our story for the public record at some point."

"That's fine. But being a Wizengamot member should have its perks, I'll make sure that report is the most heavily redacted piece of paperwork the Ministry has ever produced."

"Why?"

"Because the last thing I want is some second rate wizard thinking that Voldemort discovered the key to immortality and going on some psychotic killing spree. Nor do I want every to keep going on about me being some kind of savior."

"They're going on about you being a savior because you are, Harry." Hermione said earnestly. "You gave your life to save us all. That's the very definition of the word."

Harry rolled his eyes before standing from his chair. "I'm going to go sit by the pond. Do you want to come?"

"You don't think you should talk to Ginny?"

"Hermione, it's nine o'clock in the morning. It'll be another three hours before she's awake."

Hermione laughed at Harry's observation. But when Ginny came stumbling down the stairs at only a few minutes before noon, that was when the both of them were able to share a good laugh at Ginny's unknowing expense.

The laughter was nice, Harry realized. It was something that no one had done much over the last few days, not that there was much of a reason to laugh.

As the day went on, Harry got more nervous about the conversation that he knew was coming. In truth, Harry was still uncertain about how he felt towards Ginny. On one hand, she was certainly beautiful and one of the strongest people that Harry had ever known.

On the other hand, Harry still feared that Ginny's love of him stemmed from her worship of him as a child. It was something that Harry had been able to forget during his time at Hogwarts as he spent time around people that truly knew him. But now that the world was reacting to Harry as if he were the creator of magic itself (quite literally a quote from the hyperbolic Daily Prophet two days after the Battle of Hogwarts), Harry understood just how much he did not want to spend time with people who were only interested in Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived.

Harry knew that he was being dramatic when it came to Ginny. He knew that she genuinely cared for him. But he also knew that there was a small amount of her that would always feel about him how she did when she was ten years old.

Finally, after dinner that evening, Harry asked for Ginny to join him on a walk. For the first ten minutes of their trip, the conversation was light and airy with no indication that either of them felt any nerves about the talk they were about to have. But as time went on, Harry could sense that each of them was feeling an increased pressure.

When the two of them got near the hill that they had Porkeyed from to go to the Quidditch World Cup, Harry asked Ginny to have a seat on the grass so they could really talk. As he sat, he felt the palm of his hands begin to sweat and the beating of his heart increased greatly.

Obviously, this was not a conversation for which he was excited.

"So, after Dumbledore's funeral, I broke up with you." Harry said stupidly, as if Ginny didn't remember the day.

"Yes." Ginny said, clearly uncertain where Harry was intending to go with this brilliant train of thought.

"I only say that because when I broke up with you, I said I needed to go it alone."

"Still stupid and noble." Ginny said with a grin.

"I suppose." Harry remarked. "But I always said that hoping that there could have been more after Voldemort was gone. I was hoping that with the threat he posed finally removed, we could be together."

"Didn't quite work out that way, did it?" Ginny commented. When she saw Harry's shocked expression, she continued. "We haven't spoken more than three words to each other since The Battle. I just saw it was coming before you did."

Harry was glad that one of them wasn't surprised by this. If you had told Harry one year earlier than he would defeat Lord Voldemort and then tell Ginny that he wasn't interested in a relationship with her, he would have thought you were insane.

"Things changed more than I ever could have imagined. I was hoping that we could figure out how to defeat him and that I would go to him. I was hoping for a small fight between some of the Order and some of the Death Eaters. I wasn't mentally prepared for the battle that we ended up having."

"It was too big and we lost too many people. Things will never be the same. _I_ won't ever be the same." Harry said softly. "I just don't know what I want right now because I don't know what I am right now."

"I know." Ginny replied. "Things didn't quite work out the way I would have expected either."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I also hoped that when we said goodbye last summer, that things would work out. You would kill Voldemort and then we'd live happily ever after. Alas, not quite." Ginny said with a dry chuckle. "Harry, I don't want you to feel like you have to do this whole thing to keep from breaking my heart. We're not getting back together. You know it. I know it. Let's not beat around the bush."

Trust Ginny to be as blunt and direct as humanly possible. Still, it was nice to know that there was no expectation from either of them that things were going to "work out."

"There is something else I have to tell you, however." Ginny said, a look that Harry didn't quite recognize on her face. It might have been fear but it looked more like contrition than anything else.

"What is it?"

"I don't know if it will be serious or not but I wanted you to know that I started seeing Neville while we were at Hogwarts."

"Really? How did that happen?" Harry asked in surprise. It was widely believed by many in Harry's class that the youngest member of the Longbottom family had long held a crush on Ginny. Still, Harry had believed that Neville would remain too afraid of Ginny to ever do something about it.

Of course, he severed the head of Voldemort's snake so Harry was likely just dead wrong.

"We spent a lot of time together in the Room of Requirement."

"Really?" Harry said with a smirk.

"Not like that!" Ginny said, slapping Harry in response to his suggestive remark. "When we were both added to the Carrows' list of dangerous students, we had to find a place to hide. We were among the first to hide in the Room of Requirement. Once other students started showing up, the two of us spearheaded the organization of the students."

"So you ended up spending a lot of time together."

"Basically all of our time." Ginny replied. "I realized how sweet he was but also just how strong and confident he had become over the years. There's nothing officially there yet but I would like to give it a shot."

Despite the fact that Ginny was clearly walking away from him towards Neville, Harry couldn't help but be happy for both of them. They were two of Harry's favorite people and both of them deserved to be happy.

Ginny blushed when Harry told her as much.

"Thanks, Harry. That means a lot." she replied, clearly genuinely happy that Harry was "giving her his blessing."

"It's not a problem." Harry said earnestly. "Want to play some Quidditch?"

"I thought you would never ask."

The walk back to the Burrow took longer than the walk out. Both Harry and Ginny had clearly relaxed. There was no pressure to act like anything more than the friends they were. There was no pressure to be romantic or even particularly affectionate.

They could simply be friends, something that the pair of them had been doing for years.

When they returned to the Burrow, Harry grabbed an old broom out of the shed and followed Ginny to the Quidditch Pitch where Charlie and Ron already waited. Harry was just about to step onto the broom when he suddenly realized exactly what broom he was using.

It was Fred's old Cleansweep Five, covered in the accumulation of years' worth of dust. The last time it had seen the light of day was after Fred and George had left Hogwarts over two years earlier.

Harry moved to take the broom back to the broom shed when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Charlie.

"It's okay, Harry. There's no reason that you can't use it." he said firmly.

"It was the only broom left in there." Harry said, attempting to explain why he would dare use Fred's broom, despite the fact that Charlie was obviously giving him permission to use it. A quick look at Bill and Ginny told him that they were also just fine with him using it.

It was Harry that was the one that had the problem. He had two options. He could continue to make a big deal about the broom, not play Quidditch and likely be disappointed in the end or he could just do what the Weasleys were saying, use the broom and have a good time.

Harry chose option B.

He hopped on the broom and launched himself into the air. While it didn't rival his first experience on a broom and it certainly wasn't as fast as his Firebolt or as majestic as his Nimbus 2000, the simple experience of being on a broom again was something that Harry couldn't have imagined feeling as good as it did in this moment. The joy of feeling the wind through his hair as the ground rushed towards him and then almost entirely disappeared within just a few seconds was as plain and pure as anything he had ever done.

The four of them played Quidditch for hours until the sky finally went dark with Harry and Ginny beating the two older Weasleys far more often than they lost. As Harry and Ginny walked back to the house, he came to the realization that a large part of the tension that Harry had been feeling over the last few days was the lingering concerns that he had surrounding his relationship with Ginny.

While things certainly weren't all roses yet, he felt a weight had been lifted off his shoulders in a way that Harry had not expected when he had sat down with Ginny earlier.

Ginny was still his friend and in the end, that's what truly mattered.


	7. Seven

Over the next week, the inhabitants of the Burrow settled into a semblance of a normal routine. Occasionally, it was broken by a reminder of someone they had lost but for the most part, life seemed to be on its way back to something resembling normalcy.

Harry and Ron spent most of their days outside of the house, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather they had been gifted considering it was still the middle of May. On the other hand, Hermione had taken to going back through all of her old textbooks, making a number of notes that she thought would be relevant to the NEWT tests that she would be taking at the end of her seventh year at Hogwarts.

Harry and Ron had no trouble ridiculing her over the fact that she was studying for a test that was still more than a year away. While she had reacted negatively the first time they brought it up, any further attempts to bother her had garnered no reaction of any kind.

While everyone was trying their best to get back into a normal routine, that did not mean that everyone was succeeding. Bill, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the Gringotts break-in, had been suspended from his job, pending the results of an investigation. Harry had already sent a letter to Gringotts, explaining his reasoning for why he had broken into the bank and ensuring that Bill had no involvement in it (despite the fact that they were living in his house when they did so).

So far, Harry had received no word back from the goblins, not a promising sign.

However, there was other news from London. Harry had attended another meeting of the Wizengamot where Kingsley had presented his choices for Senior Undersecretary, Junior Undersecretary and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Kingsley's choice for Senior Undersecretary was a surprise but one that was guaranteed to pass through: Tiberius Ogden.

Despite the fact that Ogden had run against Kingsley for Minister, Kingsley apparently trusted the man enough to appoint him to the second highest office in the Ministry. The vote for Ogden had fallen largely on the expected lines with roughly sixty percent of the Court favoring him and forty percent, bolstered by the pureblood vote, voted against.

Kingsley's pick to lead the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was also a cinch. Meredith Breckinridge was a relatively young employee for the Ministry of Magic, especially considering the decades that most had on her. However, during her time at the Department of Magical Transportation, she had developed a reputation for being tough, analytical and willing to do try whatever it took to get a job completed. While she had no experience in Law Enforcement, she was going to be supported by Gawain Robards, her Head Auror, who had been an Auror since Kingsley was still in a crib.

This vote was even more lopsided with nearly eighty percent of the vote going to Breckinridge. Only the Death Eater families who remained on the Court had voted against.

But it had been Kingsley's pick for Junior Undersecretary, Percy Weasley, that had caused the most trouble. Kingsley, of course, had suspected this for a couple of reasons. First, despite the newly found power they now wielded, the Weasleys were still not particularly well-liked by a large group of Wizengamot members due mostly to Arthur's obsession with Muggles.

The second reason was that Percy had clearly abandoned his family when Voldemort had returned, siding with Fudge and directly opposing his family. Copies of dozens of letters that he had written during his time as Fudge's Junior Undersecretary were presented to the Court as evidence of his foolishness by a select group of Wizengamot members who had opposed Voldemort but also blamed people like Fudge and Percy for why Voldemort was able to do as much damage as he did.

Even Percy's personal statement, which outlined the regret that he felt over his obvious mistake to support Fudge over his family, didn't appear to sway anyone. However, at the end of the day and only moments before the vote, Harry stood and voiced his opinion.

"Despite the things that Percy has said about me in the past, I firmly believe that he will do wonderful things as Minister Shacklebolt's primary advisor. He clearly understands how foolish he was to blindly follow Minister Cornelius Fudge and is in a better position now to offer the Minister honest counsel on the decisions of his office. I can think of no better candidate for the position."

The vote had been tight: 52-48. However, it was widely accepted by the rest of the Weasleys in the room that it had been Harry's voice that had swung the vote. Now, a Weasley, one with the backing of several high ranking Ministry officials and a handful of Wizengamot members, had an office next to the Minister of Magic. It was by far the most powerful ranking any member of the Weasley family had ever achieved.

That night, the Weasleys held a huge party for most of their extended family. Luna had even walked from her house over to the Burrow to join in the celebrations.

George, Bill and Fleur sat near a bonfire that kept spewing flaming magical creatures, the funniest being a flaming flobberworm, a glass of firewhiskey for each of them. Percy stood with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley behind them, regaling both of them with the story of Harry's exploits in the Wizengamot that day, despite the fact that Mr. Weasley had been present for the events.

Charlie, who planned to return to Romania the following morning, had wandered off when he thought no one was looking towards Fred's grave. Of course, everyone had seen him but no one had mentioned it.

At the table next to him, Ron and Hermione were arguing about something in hushed tones. If Harry had to guess, it was likely related to Hermione's decision to go to Australia without Ron. Harry had no intention to get in the middle of that if he could help it. Harry wasn't particularly optimistic about their chances and he certainly wasn't going to put himself in the middle of their problems unless he was forced.

Which, assuming they continued down the path that they were currently following, would happen sooner rather than later. The pair of them had been getting on each other's nerves on a more regular basis with each passing day. Harry thought that for the time being, they probably needed some time apart so that they could each deal with the fallout of the Battle on their own but he wasn't going to say that aloud for fear of getting his head lopped off by either of them.

Harry was in the process of starting his third game of Exploding Snap against Ginny when Mr. Weasley told Harry that there was someone waiting for him inside. Promising Ginny that he would return to beat her in a few minutes, Harry made his way to the living room where a very welcome surprise awaited Harry: the newly minted Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Minister, it's good to see you." Harry said as he firmly shook the Minister's hand.

"Harry, we're in private. Call me Kingsley." Kingsley said with a smirk. "Hell, you're Harry Potter. You can call me Kingsley whenever you like."

"I think I'll keep a good public face and not do that." Harry said before motioning for Kingsley to sit down. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, you can come join the Ministry."

"Didn't you try this trick with Hermione already?" Harry chuckled.

"I did. That job will still be waiting for her when she's done at Hogwarts. So would this one if you decided to accept it."

"And what job is that?"

Kingsley reached into the briefcase next to him, pulling a white folder from inside and setting it in front of Harry.

"I want you to become the Ministry's youngest Senior Auror. You'll go to the Auror Academy for a month and then you'll instantly be promoted to running one of the task forces that I've established to search for the Death Eaters that escaped the Battle."

Harry had expected something along these lines. Not only did Kingsley value Harry's ability, but as a politician, Kingsley was smart enough to know that having Harry working for the Ministry was a big win for his administration. Unlike Scrimgeour, who only wanted Harry to be a part of his propaganda machine, Kingsley wanted to actually involved Harry at the Ministry, doing something worthwhile.

It was unfortunate for Kingsley, however, that Harry had already made up his mind that he was not going to become an Auror.

"I have to say no, Kingsley."

"You won't even hear what I have to say?" Kingsley asked, looking almost hurt by Harry's swift rejection.

"Unfortunately, no." Harry said before pressing forward. "Listen, I've spent the last seven years of my life running from or chasing Dark wizards. I don't want that for the rest of my life and I'm afraid that if I don't say no now, I won't ever be able to walk away from this. I'm enjoying my work with the Wizengamot at the moment. I'm enjoying that I'll get to be a part of the process of rebuilding the Ministry."

"I can understand that." Kingsley said with a smile. "But you know that I had to ask."

"I know. I hope you aren't too upset that I said no."

"Well, if Arthur hadn't warned me that you would likely turn me down, I might have been. But I've also seen the way you've acted in the Wizengamot and I think you have the potential to do some really great work there."

"I have found it a far more enjoyable experience than I expected." Harry admitted. "But I don't think I'll turn it into my full time job."

"What will you do then?"

It was the question that Harry had been asking himself more and more frequently over the last few days. For years, the idea of being an Auror had been all that he had ever considered. But with that now taken off the table, what was left? To be honest, Harry hadn't spent much time looking for potential career options.

Something about a homicidal maniac trying to kill him had left him a bit distracted.

Still, it was the most pressing matter in Harry's life moving forward, something he knew that he would eventually have to address. But with Harry having spent a year in hiding plus the total amount of his Gringotts account, he felt that he had earned himself a bit of a rest.

"Not sure, to be honest." Harry smiled. "I'm on vacation right now."

"It's well earned. I hope that, whatever you do, I'll be able to call on your help."

"I don't know what help I can offer but what I can offer, it's yours."

Kingsley stood and collected his things. Once he did, Kingsley pulled another folder from his bag and handed it to Harry.

"I do need one favor. I need you to put the names of Dumbledore's Army on there."

Instantly, Harry was wary of the request. "Why?"

"Any members of the DA who wish to join the Auror Academy will be granted an immediate admission after they have finished Hogwarts. Anyone who missed school last year will have to take a test to join if they wish to skip their last year at school."

"Will the Ministry keep this list after that information is passed on?"

"Letters will be sent to each person. The Ministry will never physically possess this list. Once you have all the names written, sign your name at the bottom. The letter will go out at once and then the paper in your possession will disintegrate."

"Thank you, Kingsley."

"Talk to your friends, Harry. The Auror Department is suffering from the effect of the War. Their numbers are the lowest they've been in over fifty years. I am certain that the students that you worked with are our best chance of replenishing those numbers."

"Only if they want it."

"Of course." Kingsley said reassuringly. "Enjoy the party, Harry. We haven't had much opportunity to celebrate recently."

"Can't you stay?"

"I would love to but I have more work than I know what to do with back at the Ministry. Thicknesse didn't necessarily operate an organized office."

"Kingsley, it's ten o'clock on a Friday. Take some time for yourself or you're going to burn yourself out."

"Such wisdom for such a young man." Kingsley joked.

"I've lived more than most in my few years."

"There's too much truth in that." Kingsley agreed with a smirk. "It seems you have convinced me, Mr. Potter."

"Good. Follow me."

Leading Kingsley back to the celebration outside, Harry joined Ginny at the main table while Harry watched Kingsley grab a drink and take a seat next to Mr. Weasley.

"What did he want?"

"To ask me to lead a team of Aurors chasing down the Death Eaters."

"What did you say?" Ginny asked in hushed tones.

"No, of course. I would like it if I never spent another day worrying about dark wizards who might come kill you."

"Good luck with that." Ginny chuckled. "You are Harry Potter, after all."

"I'm aware. I know that I'll always be a target but I would prefer it if I didn't spend my life going after the people who are trying to kill me."

"I suppose I can understand that." Ginny replied before looking at the stack of cards in front of them. "It's your turn, by the way."

As expected, Ginny, secretly one of the best Exploding Snap players Harry had ever seen, continued her run until Harry finally gave up after ten consecutive losses. Even as Harry and Ginny, no longer together but still friends, had spent the entire evening together, Ron and Hermione, attempting to remain together, had separated with Ron joining his brothers at the fire and Hermione going to sleep early in the evening.

Once Harry stood up from the table with Ginny, he looked at Ron and saw that he clearly had no interest in speaking to anyone about what was going on. So, Harry excused himself to check on his other best friend.

Knocking on her door, Harry heard nothing at first. But after the third set of knocks on the door, Hermione pulled the door open. Immediately, it was clear, based on the redness in Hermione's eyes, that she had been crying. As much as Harry told himself that he wasn't going to play relationship counselor to the two of them (probably due to his failure at his own relationships), he also wasn't going to abandon them when they needed his help.

"Need to talk?" was all Harry said as she opened the door.

Hermione took a moment to collect herself. "Not right now, Harry."

"You sure?"

Again, a moment to think. "I'm not sure about a lot of things right now."

Harry had seen almost every emotion from Hermione over the year. There was no question that Hermione was his most emotionally available friend. But this, whatever he was seeing from her, was new.

It looked like resignation. Hermione seemed to be admitting defeat, something he didn't know that she was capable of doing.

"He's going through a lot right now, Hermione."

"He doesn't need you to make excuses for him." Hermione snapped back.

"He doesn't. But he's not the only one going through something." Harry answered with a knowing look. "Let's find your parents before you decide to walk away from this."

"Who said I was thinking of walking away?"

"I did." Harry replied firmly. "Don't try and tell me that's not what you're thinking. I may not always know how to help but I spent a year living with you and you can pick up a lot in that amount of time."

"I know." Hermione admitted, her head sinking to the floor. "Does it make me a bad person?"

"What?"

"Does thinking about leaving him make me a bad person?"

"No." Harry replied, placing a gentle hand on Hermione's chin, lifting her head until she looked him in the eyes. "Leading him on and breaking his heart in a few months would make you a bad person. I think you could both use some time away from each other."

Hermione's response was a simple nod. From her body language alone, Harry could tell that she believed to be this a form of defeat in itself.

"Why don't you go stay with Luna tonight?"

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Potter?" Hermione said with a cool smirk.

"You know I'm not. But I can't go with you because Ron will lose his mind. Luna lives just over the ridge and you'll be able to get away for the evening. I'm sure that Ginny would go with you too."

"Girls night, huh?"

"Seems like a good idea to me." Harry said with a grin.

Hermione leaned forward and pulled Harry into a warm embrace, her head resting gently on Harry's chest. Even in the way she pulled Harry close, he could feel the tension that she so desperately needed to be rid of. Harry only hoped that this would do it.

He also hoped that Ron wouldn't flip his lid when he found out that Hermione had left the Burrow.

When Hermione let go, he told her to gather her things while he went to get Ginny and Luna. Once he informed them what was going on, they instantly went to go help Hermione pack her things for an evening away from the Burrow.

After that, Harry told Mr. and Mrs. Weasley what was going on. Neither of them seemed surprised that the girls would be leaving or that Ron and Hermione were having issues communicating their problems to each other.

That had certainly not be Ron's specialty before the loss of his brother. No one assumed that it would get better now.

As Harry finished talking to the elder Weasleys, Hermione came down the stairs inside the house, followed by Ginny and Luna. While she didn't say anything to Harry, he could tell just from the look in her eyes just how much she appreciated the suggestion that she get away from Ron for a minute.

Now, Harry only hoped that they were able to manage the inevitable eruption when Ron found out they had left.

Thankfully, he waited until about ten minutes after they left, ensuring none of them were around for the fallout. As Kingsley left, Ron had stood up to say goodbye. As he did, he looked around the area and noticed that Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

Instantly, he looked up and met Harry's eyes, a flicker of anger clearly visible.

Once Kingsley had Apparated away, the rest of the family set about clearing up the remains of the party.

All of them except Ron who made his way straight to Harry.

"Where did she go?"

For a moment, Harry considered lying.

"She went with Luna and Ginny to spend the night at Luna's house."

Instantly, there was a twitch in Ron's jaw, which betrayed the look of calm that he attempted to put on his face.

"Why?"

"She needed some space."

"Why would she need space?" Ron demanded.

"We all need space, Ron." Harry replied evenly. "We've all been on top of each other for almost every hour since the Battle ended."

"Not you." Ron countered. "You have Grimmauld Place that you can go to."

"So can you. So can anyone. We all need time away from people."

"But we both know that you don't mean people, Harry." Ron snapped. "You mean me."

It was in these moments that Ron was the most difficult to deal with. The moments where he felt self-conscious and vulnerable, where he felt like a liability to others, he often made it worse by acting like an ass. It became a vicious cycle that often spiraled into the huge fights that Ron had experienced with others over the years.

It was what caused Ron to leave them on the Horcrux hunt.

Thankfully, Ron decided that he was done talking to Harry and marched off towards his room. Harry knew that things would likely come to a head at some point soon. Ron was grieving but refusing to acknowledge it and it was going to lead to Ron's implosion at some point.

That point came two days later. When Hermione had returned from Luna's house, Ron had spent the entire next day ignoring Hermione entirely. Harry promised Hermione that he would talk to Ron but Ron didn't appear to be interested in talking to Harry either. In fact, Ron basically spent the entire day in his room, hiding from the world.

Harry was seated at the table, eating his breakfast with Hermione and Ginny when Ron came downstairs. Harry could tell that Ron appeared to have calmed down significantly, something that Harry was truly thankful for.

"Hermione, can we talk?"

"Sure." Hermione said apprehensively before standing and leading Ron into the living room. Harry and Ginny shared a concerned look as the door closed behind them.

"Do you think he's going to end it?" Ginny asked nervously.

"I doubt it. Ron's more stubborn than any person I've ever met." Harry smirked. "But she might."

"You think?"

Harry wasn't exactly sure what Hermione had said to Ginny about this particular subject, so Harry erred on the side of caution when he answered.

"It's just a feeling." Harry said, not a complete lie while also obfuscating the truth.

For nearly twenty minutes, Harry and Ginny chatted quietly in the kitchen, each curious as to what was going on in the living room while not daring to listen in.

Suddenly, Ron's voice ripped through the house.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Harry fought the urge to get in between them. If things were ever going to work for them, then they needed to be able to work things out themselves. Then, the door to the kitchen came flying open, slamming into the wall behind it, causing several items to be knocked to the floor from the shelves where they sat.

The look on Ron's face was murderous. If Harry had ever seen Ron look as enraged as he currently looked, he couldn't remember it.

"Ron?"

Ron slammed his hands on the table in front of Harry, his face only inches from Harry's as she shouted, spit covering Harry's glasses.

"You care to explain why you're going to Australia with my girlfriend!?"

Before Harry could answer, Hermione grabbed Ron's arms and turned him back to her. "Because I invited him, you dolt! I told you that already!"

"I'll get to you in a moment." Ron growled before turning back to Harry. "Well?"

Harry sighed. He had been afraid of this moment from the day that Hermione had invited him to go with her.

"She asked me to go." Harry said simply, doing his best to keep his voice even. Ron was dangerously close to losing it. Harry didn't want to push him any further.

"Why did you say yes?"

"Because she's my friend."

"I thought you were my friend!" Ron bellowed. At this point, other members of the Weasley family had heard the commotion and were coming down the stairs. However, Ginny appeared to be heading them off from stopping Ron. She knew, just like Harry, that Ron needed to get this out of his system at some point.

It might cost his relationship with Hermione but in the end, the thing that Harry thought Ron needed most was some semblance of control over his life.

"I am your friend, Ron." Harry snapped. "I'm also Hermione's friend, just in case you forgot."

"So you just picked her over me!"

"Did you ask me to go somewhere with you, Ron?" Harry barked. "No, you didn't. She did."

"And you just happened to conveniently forget that she's my girlfriend? Were you planning on taking her out for a spin while you were there?"

As far as tantrums went, Ron's were typically relatively innocent. He would get upset, say something dumb but ultimately harmless, realize that he had been stupid and then apologize.

This went well beyond that. The implication that Harry was only going to have sex with Hermione was something that Harry couldn't abide. Just as he heard Mrs. Weasley shout "Ron!," Harry stood and threw a wild hook to the side of Ron's head, causing him to crash to the ground.

As Ron's face collided with the ground, blood spurting from his nose, Harry found his wand in his hand, ready and willing to curse Ron into oblivion. Only Hermione's hand on his arm made Harry realize just how furious he really was.

Breathing deeply, Harry stowed his wand back in its holster before leaning down over Ron.

"I'm not sorry that I hit you." Harry said, his voice even, only barely masking the fire that burned deep within Harry's chest. "Be thankful that Hermione stopped me because you deserved worse than that. Say something like that again and they won't be able to identify what's left of you."

Harry turned to Hermione, rubbing his fist which he had certainly broken when he hit Ron.

"I'll be at Grimmauld Place. Let me know when we're leaving."

Hermione nodded gently, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Harry, you don't have to leave." Mr. Weasley said as he made his way into the kitchen.

"Yes, he does." Ron said as he picked himself up off the floor, staring daggers at Harry. "He's not welcome here anymore."

"Yes, he is." Mrs. Weasley said, joining her husband. "Ron, go into the living room. Your father and I will talk to you in a moment."

"I'll stay right here."

"You will do what your mother said." Mr. Weasley said, sounding more dangerous than Harry had ever heard him. "Don't think of saying anything else."

Smartly, he didn't. He locked eyes on Harry's for a moment before chuckling darkly to himself and then marched into the next room.

"Harry…" Mrs. Weasley started before Harry interrupted her.

"Mrs. Weasley, there's nothing to be said. Ron is working through things like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, Ron seems to have forgotten how to be a decent person."

"He's just a little lost right now." Mr. Weasley agreed. "I hope he figures things out."

"He will." Harry reassured them. "But I can't be here until he has."

Harry turned to Hermione, who was staring at the door Ron had disappeared behind.

"Will you come with me?"

"And live at Grimmauld Place?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"I need someone to help me fix the place up anyway." Harry said with a grin.

"You do." Hermione agreed before nodding her head. "Let me go back my things."

Hermione made her way up the stairs past the rest of the Weasley to go gather her things. As she did, everyone began to dissipate, going back to their business that had been interrupted by Ron's outburst.

Everyone except for Ginny, that is.

"I've got a request." Ginny said firmly.

"OK?"

"I want to come with you too."

"Excuse me?"

"I want to live with you at Grimmauld Place."

"Why?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Because I need to get away from here." Ginny reasoned. "Bill and Fleur are getting ready to go back home, same with Charlie. George is only staying through the end of the week and then he'll be moving back to Diagon Alley. He's already talking about reopening WWW within the next month or so."

"What about Percy?"

"He's staying for the rest of the month but he's also at work like ninety hours a week. That leaves me and Ron with Mum and Dad. With what Ron just did, he's likely going to hide himself in his room, which leaves me alone with my parents. I love them but I need space just as much as anyone else."

Harry knew that she was right about that. He still believed that the lack of space was part of what had driven Ron to his temporary state of madness. However, he also knew that Molly Weasley was particularly protective of her youngest child. Even if she was of age, Molly would fight tooth and nail to keep her daughter at home.

Still, that wasn't going to be Harry's fight to have.

"You're in charge of telling your parents." Harry whispered. "You know they'll ask you to stay."

"I know. But I can't."

"OK."

Harry had been right when they had asked her to stay. In fact, Mrs. Weasley had gone as far as attempting to guilt Ginny into staying by saying that they had already lost one child. Before she got to whatever the rest of that sentence was, Mr. Weasley had agreed to let her go if she returned to the Burrow at least once each weekend, just to visit.

Ginny had readily agreed before thanking both of her parents and going to gather her things. Minutes later, Harry stood just outside the front door to The Burrow with his things alongside Ginny and Hermione and their belongings.

"Come visit soon." Mrs. Weasley said, tears in her eyes as she watched her youngest child suddenly moving away from home with sadness.

"We will." Ginny whispered before Harry placed took Ginny's hand in his right and Hermione's in his left hand. Then, with a brief smile at the rest of the Weasleys, he turned in place. After a quick rush and the feeling of being sucked through a straw, the three of them landed in the dark entry of Grimmauld Place.

"Welcome home."


	8. Eight

For nearly a week, Harry, Hermione and Ginny remained at Grimmauld Place, working from sunrise to sunset in an attempt to get the house back in working order. Even with the ability to perform magic, the specifics of repairing the house often requires hours of tedious spellwork to ensure that things went back in the proper order. They learned their lesson about trying to do it all at once when pieces from the wall combined with the plumbing in the walls behind it on their first attempt.

Harry had said at the time that they should have learned their lesson from trying to repair the castle.

Over the course of the last few days, most of the lowest level of the house was back in working order, especially the living room where the three of them spent most of their time. The kitchen, with no help from Kreacher, was slowly getting back in order as was the bathroom and dining room.

The tapestry room had not been touched.

On the upper levels, only the three bedrooms where each of them were staying had even begun work and that was mostly so that they could sleep without laying on piles of rubble. The only exception on the upper levels was the library, which Hermione had taken to cleaning in between major jobs on the lower levels.

All in all, the house was beginning to look like just that again, albeit slowly. Still, Harry enjoyed the work. It was detailed and mind-numbing and gave him a purpose that didn't involve dark magic or the destruction of anyone's soul, a marked improvement over the previous seventeen years of his life.

Finally, Ginny made the decision to return to the Burrow. She explained to Hermione and Harry that she just needed to go back and visit to see how her parents were doing and then she would return home. Harry and Hermione offered to go with her but Ginny declined, citing the potential for a second bout between Harry and Ron.

Plus, Ginny wanted the opportunity to talk to her parents now that they were effectively alone in the house, with only a moody Ron to share their home. As each of the Weasley siblings had left The Burrow, they had stopped by to see how the residents of Grimmauld Place were doing.

Bill had even helped Harry restore the Fidelius Charm and the wards, meaning that once again Grimmauld Place was hidden to the world.

Ginny expected that Ron was likely much calmer now that he had been when they had last seen him but Harry wasn't so certain. Ron could hold a grudge better than almost anyone as Harry had experienced first hand during his fourth year.

Ginny had countered by telling Harry that she expected him to be calmer but that did not mean that he would be cordial.

Sure enough, when Ginny returned from her visit with her parents, it was with a frustrated scowl plastered on her face.

"That went well, I see." Hermione said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Ronald is being an ass." Ginny grumbled as she collapsed in her seat in front of the fireplace in the front sitting room where Harry and Hermione had been when she returned home.

"How so?" Harry asked.

"I only saw him for about two seconds at first but it certainly was memorable." Ginny replied. "He came downstairs, saw that I was there and turned and marched out of the room. I'm pretty sure that he mumbled "traitor" as he climbed the stairs."

"Ron doesn't necessarily handle adversity well. We know that." Hermione said, obviously doing her best to excuse Ron's behavior.

Harry wasn't having it.

"Hermione, we both know that Ron will eventually come around. He doesn't need you to cover for him." Harry said, before adding, "He was being rude and disrespectful. When he apologizes, we'll forgive him. Until then, he's being an ass."

"Like I said." Ginny added with a grin. "Anyway, when I was done talking to Mum and Dad, I may or may not have barged into his room and demanded that he stop being such a putz."

"I'm sure that when well." Harry said.

"Actually, it went better than I had hoped." Ginny replied honestly. "We ended up talking for about an hour. Basically, Ron isn't the type of person that can be friends with a girl without developing feelings for her."

"Well, isn't that just a wonderful reason for falling in love with me?" Hermione said, her voice dark and gravelly.

"That's basically what I told him." Ginny replied. "He just doesn't get the fact that you and Harry can be friends and not be in love. I just told him that you two are like siblings."

"Hermione is my best friend." Harry said firmly. "She has been for years."

"Same." Hermione replied.

"I know." Ginny said, although Harry thought that he heard something that sounded like regret in her voice. "Anyway, I explained that to Ronald. He said something along the lines of " _but she's always looking out for him instead of me"_ to which I told him that I don't think it's ever been an either-or situation for Hermione."

"It hasn't." Harry agreed. "Hermione has saved both of our asses more times that I could count."

"We all know that." Ginny said. "I think even Ron knows that but that doesn't mean that he really understands that. Ron has always been petty. In his head, he keeps a ledger. One for you, one for me. It doesn't matter how big a favor is, it counts as one."

"But why? We're friends." Harry replied in confusion.

"I don't know." Ginny admitted. "But it's just the way he is. Everything will always be a tally with him. I don't think that he means anything bad by it. I think it's the result of having as many siblings as we did. He spent years getting hung up on whether he was getting the same thing as the rest of us."

"Why didn't that happen to you?" Hermione asked.

Ginny shrugged. "Dunno. Guess by the time you get to the last of seven children, that kind of thing just seems a bit stupid."

Harry couldn't say that he disagreed but it was an interesting insight into the mind of his friend. Ron would eventually come around, once he got over the fact that he felt like the ledger between Harry and Ron was weighted heavily in Harry's favor.

Unfortunately, with as often as Harry was put in danger and as often as Hermione went out of her way to help him, that wasn't going to be soon if Harry had his guess. Still, he knew that one day, Ron would come to his senses.

At least that was Harry's hope.

Later that evening, after Harry was suffering another bout of insomnia, he sat on the balcony that Harry had built that connected all three of the rooms that the occupants of Grimmauld Place had chosen. It was late, well after three o'clock in the morning, when Harry took his seat with a bottle of firewhiskey to accompany him. Harry never drank much more than a single glass at a time but for some reason, he still enjoyed the aesthetic of having the bottle on the table next to him, like he was one of the wealthy Muggles he used to see on the television.

Of course, then Harry would remember that he was secretly wealthier than almost everyone that he knew.

Recently, when Harry couldn't sleep, he would simply sit on the balcony and watch the city. This area of London was quiet, relatively tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. Still, a few times there had been large groups of people wandering the streets behind Grimmauld Place, completely unaware of his presence due to the fact that they weren't keyed into the Grimmauld Place wards.

But most of the time, it was silent and Harry simply sat and looked out over the lights of the city, watching as they burned brightly until the sun came up over the horizon or he fell asleep, whichever happened first.

That night, however, he did not get to simply watch the horizon. Only a few seconds after he sat down, Harry heard a cry come from one of the other rooms in the house. All three rooms that Harry, Hermione and Ginny stayed in had been redesigned when Harry had added this balcony. When he had done that, he had added a large set of double doors that exited onto the shared balcony. Already, there had been two occasions where Harry had awoken in the morning to find Ginny and Hermione sitting on the balcony, sharing breakfast and watching as the city awoke.

At first, Harry chose to ignore the sound. It wasn't that he didn't care. It was that it wasn't the first time it had happened. No one slept well anymore, not with everything that had happened over the last month. Some nights, it was Hermione. Others, it was Ginny. Most of the time, the cries only last a few minutes and barely made it out of their room.

This was not most of the time. Almost immediately after the first cry came a second. This time, it was clearly identifiable as Ginny's voice. Not simply because the timbre, which Harry would have recognized anywhere.

No, it was because of what she yelled.

"Fred!" Harry heard her shout a second time as he stood from his seat. Even as he moved closer to her room, he felt like he was intruding. Still, Harry had experienced enough terrible dreams over the years that he knew that he would always prefer to be awoken rather than continue sleeping.

Again, Ginny cried out just as Harry reached the double door. Looking through the glass windows in the door, Harry could see Ginny, her eyes clenched shut, writhing back and forth in her bed, clearing trying to fight off some sort of invisible enemy. Without making a sound, Harry opened the door and crept inside, still afraid of what would happen when he woke her up.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be upset that he had effectively broken into her room.

Harry sat on the edge of the bed as Ginny shook with invisible fear, her body twisting and turning as if she was being electrocuted. Fighting the urge to cry or run, Harry instead took a hand and placed it on Ginny's shoulder, shaking her slightly as he whispered her name.

Nothing changed as Ginny continued to fight through her nightmares, alone against the demons in her mind.

Then, she screamed again. But this time, her demon was different.

"Not him." she whispered through clenched teeth, her jaw clearly strained. "It can't be him….Harry…."

Harry had never heard Ginny sound like that. The desperation in her voice….she sounded weak, something he would have never associated with the bull-headed youngest Weasley. Again, Harry shook her, this time speaking louder.

Sobs racked Ginny's body as her mind mourned for someone who wasn't dead.

"Please, take me instead….." she pleaded to no one. At that moment, Harry couldn't take it any longer.

"GINNY!" Harry shouted as her eyes snapped open. At first, it was clear that she didn't know where she was. She had been so lost in her nightmare that being brought back to the world as quickly as she did would surely confuse her.

But then, as Ginny's expression changed from confusion to horror, he realized that it was not the location that surprised her.

It was him.

He was supposed to be dead.

"Ginny…" Harry whispered as Ginny crawled to the far side of the bed in a rush, grabbing her wand from the side table and aiming it at Harry's glasses.

"You-you're dead."

"Ginny, I'm not." Harry said softly. "Just remember."

"I saw you. Hagrid had you."

Harry gently lifted his hand and pushed Ginny's wand to the side before placing a gentle hand on her cheek. Almost instantly, she sank against the pressure of his hand, sobbing as she fell into it.

"He did. I came back." Harry whispered as he took her head in his hands, kissing her gently on the forehead.

"You did." Ginny whispered, her eyes flickering up towards him. "I remember."

"It was a nightmare."

Ginny nodded. "The worst."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry said as he lowered his hands away from her face, taking her hands in his.

Ginny shook her head.

"OK." Harry replied. "I can sit over in the corner if you want. I'm not going to sleep anyway."

"No." Ginny answered.

"It's really alright. I don't-"

"Can you stay with me?"

The question stopped Harry in his tracks as he swallowed hard.

"With you? Like...in your bed?"

"We're adults now, Harry." Ginny reminded him. "Plus, it's not like you're going to sleep with me."

Even though Ginny's voice was barely above a whisper, that moment sounded like a veiled shot against his decision to not pursue a relationship with her. Plus, he wasn't going to fight her on the technicality that she wasn't an adult until August. Still, Ginny was one of his closest friends and she was clearly struggling. While he was certainly not comfortable with the idea of staying with her for a variety of reasons, he trusted her and he trusted that this was what she needed.

"Right." Harry said as he laid down next to Ginny. At same time, Ginny threw the sheets over Harry before resting her body against him. Immediately, every muscle in Harry's body froze. He knew that he was being silly. He was seventeen years old and Ginny had survived enough in her life to be considered an adult, at least in everything other than age.

Still, this was the closest he had ever been to another girl, especially in this kind of...environment. For a few seconds, Harry fought against the urge to flee. Instead, he took several deep breaths and then turned to Ginny, who had rolled onto her side next to him, placing a single arm over her.

If Harry's urge to flee had been strong before, it was working overtime when he realized that Ginny was only barely clothed, a t-shirt that barely covered the top of her abs and underwear were all she wore. The feeling of skin on skin immediately caused Harry's mind to begin imagining certain, " _extracurricular"_ activities with Ginny, something that he had imagined many times before.

But that had always occurred in the private and certainly not with the object of his imagination pressed against him with only the smallest amount of clothing on.

"Did you bring your wand with you to bed, Harry?"

If Harry had been embarrassed before, even mortified wasn't a strong enough word to describe how he felt at the moment. Harry sputtered, attempting to come up with words to explain himself as he pulled away from Ginny. Before he could do that, however, Ginny turned, her face less than an inch from his.

"It's okay, Harry." Ginny whispered softly, her voice doing more to him that his imagination could have ever done. "I'm not expecting you to be my boyfriend."

For a moment, Harry had the thought that Ginny had somehow faked her nightmares to trick Harry into her bed. But, if he was being honest, she wouldn't have had to do that and she knew it. All it would have taken was a simple pull on his wrist into her room one night. Regardless of how he felt about a permanent relationship, Ginny was well aware of how Harry felt about her.

Suddenly, Harry felt Ginny's hand on his wrist. She took his hand and pressed it against her bare stomach. When he made contact, Harry's eyes flashed back up to hers. For a moment, she simply stared before leaning forward, placing the gentlest of kisses on his lips.

"Don't think, Harry. We'll deal with this in the morning. For one night, be with me."

Despite a massive part of his brain telling him to run out of the room, Harry listened to her, nodding gently as Ginny kissed him again. This time, however, there was nothing gentle about it.

In fact, there wasn't much gentle about what occurred in that room over the next hour. It was passionate and urgent and, if they both being honest, a little angry and frustrated. While there was no question that they loved each other, what they were doing had nothing to do with love. Simply put, it was a release that both of them needed. Deep in their minds, they knew this would make things between them more complicated.

At the moment, neither of them cared.

When Harry awoke in the morning, he noticed two things. First, Ginny wasn't in bed. But considering that her clothes had been picked up from the floor, Harry assumed that she gone to shower.

The second peculiarity that Harry noticed was a letter on the side table next to him. As Harry opened it, he noticed the Hogwarts crest on the envelope. Pulling out the letter on the inside, Harry immediately recognized the writing as that of his former professor, Minerva McGonagall.

 _Harry,_

 _I will be in London this afternoon. If it is not too much of a burden, I would like to meet you at the Leaky Cauldron. Please reply with a time that will work for you. I will have Tom arrange a special room for the two of us._

 _Minerva McGonagall  
Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Harry reread the letter a few times, two things sticking out at him. First, McGonagall's signature included her new title: Headmistress of Hogwarts. It was not unexpected but Harry was a bit surprised that he hadn't seen the news in the Daily Prophet.

It was possible that it was a new development, Harry thought.

The second thing Harry noticed was that this meeting that she wanted was just between the two of them. This meant that it was something related to Harry in particular, rather than something related to his defeat of Voldemort or something of that nature.

Naturally, Harry couldn't resist his curiosity at what McGonagall had in store for him. Quickly, he sent back a reply with a time in the afternoon that he would be available. That done, Harry stood up, dressing as he made his way to the door.

Harry intended to head towards the bathroom where he could shower. Unfortunately, there was a person in his way: Hermione Granger with the largest grin on her face that Harry had ever seen.

"Lost?" Hermione said as Harry finished buttoning the jeans that he had been wearing the previous night.

Harry's initial instinct was to lie. However, Hermione wasn't stupid and clearly knew what had happened.

"Something to say, Hermione?"

"Just that if you two are going to keep doing this, we need to soundproof your room." Hermione smirked.

"You're not angry?"

"You're an adult and Ginny is...well, she's Ginny." Hermione replied. "Just make sure that Ron doesn't find out that you're doing anything more than snogging."

"I don't think we have to worry about that." Harry countered as she slipped past Hermione, headed towards the bathroom. "It's not like he's talking to us right now."

"I know but if you keep this up, he'll find out."

"I'm sure he will." Harry replied as he pulled the door to the bathroom open. However, when he had gotten distracted by Hermione, he had forgotten that he had expected Ginny to be in there.

Which she was. Standing on the other side of the door with just a towel covering her was Ginny. Her eyes flashed quickly between Harry and Hermione before resting on Harry.

"She knows?"

"Apparently, we were not quiet." Harry said, chuckling softly.

"Sounds about right." Ginny said before grabbing the door handle, closing the door behind her as she stepped out into the hallway and joined the other two. "Want to join next time, Hermione?"

For the last few minutes, Hermione had definitely had the advantage in their conversation. With one comment, however, Ginny had flipped the conversation entirely, causing Hermione's face to go completely red.

"But, you two-"

"He's not my boyfriend." Ginny replied, something that in the past would have infuriated Harry. Now, he found that it gave him a certain amount of comfort that Ginny didn't seem to regret what they had done but also wasn't expecting some sort of commitment from him. "He's free to sleep with whoever he wants. I can't imagine him turning down the both of us."

Hermione looked as if her head was about to explode. While Harry found it to be hilarious, he also didn't want to have to take his best friend to St. Mungo's.

At least, not without one final barb.

"Go get dressed." Harry scoffed in Ginny's direction before turning back to Hermione. "She was just kidding. Well, sort of, I mean, I certainly wouldn't have turned the both of you down."

That was the final straw. Hermione threw her hands up in the air and growled in frustration, causing Harry to laugh uproariously. Behind Harry, he could hear Ginny laughing as well. Once Harry saw that Hermione was out of sight, he turned back to Ginny.

"Just so we're clear," Harry started, his tone clearly indicating that he was being serious. "We're good? No regrets about what we did?"

"None." Ginny confirmed. "I heard what you said about not being certain what you want. Last night, I wanted you. But I had no hopes that it was suddenly going to change things between us. In fact, I suppose it was a nice way of saying goodbye."

"Goodbye?"

"Not goodbye, really. It's just that...I have a date tonight with Neville." Ginny explained. "To be honest, I'm glad we were able to get together last night. There's no regret, there's nothing we missed. Now, we can move on."

"I agree." Harry said simply before leaning down to kiss Ginny. "Tell Neville I said hi."

"Where are you going?"

"I have a meeting with McGonagall today." Harry replied. "I need some new robes anyway so I'm going to go grab those and then meet with her."

"Well, tell her that I expect to be named Quidditch captain this fall."

"I'm certain that's exactly why she wanted to talk to me." Harry laughed as he walked away.

After a quick shower, Harry was out the door. Apparating directly into Madame Malkin's had been a good idea for avoiding attention. However, the longer he remained in the robe parlor, the more attention he drew. By the time he was ready to leave, there was a crowd gathered outside of the store.

Harry could have easily Apparated from Madame Malkin's to the Leaky Cauldron. However, he knew that even the briefest of public appearances could sate the appetite of the public, specifically the media. So, as Harry walked the length of Diagon Alley, he answered almost a dozen questions that were lobbed at him from the center of a mob.

Each question was answered with a clenched grin on his face.

When Harry arrived at The Leaky Cauldron, he was pleased to see that the crowd wasn't stupid enough to follow him inside. Of course, that likely had something to do with the stern look on the face of Minerva McGonagall, who stood in front of Tom, clearly waiting.

"Sorry, Professor." Harry murmured. "I did my best."

"You gave them what they wanted, Potter." McGonagall observed. "You'll have to do that every so often for the rest of your life."

"I'm aware." Harry replied before changing the subject. "Where are we going?"

"Take my hand." McGonagall replied, her palm towards the air as she held her hand in front of her. Harry didn't dare argue with her. The second he touched her hand, he felt the familiar sensation of Apparition. Within seconds, The Leaky Cauldron had disappeared, replaced by the familiar setting of the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts.

"Didn't think I'd be back here so soon." Harry said as he took the same chair he had sat in dozens of times across from the Headmistress' desk. This time, however, the face peering at him from the other side wasn't Albus Dumbledore.

Some things change, others don't.

"Life is full of surprises, Potter." McGonagall mused softly. "How is life at Grimmauld Place?"

"You remember the name?"

"I do. However, I cannot seem to remember where it is located or what it looks like, which prevents me from going there. I'm hoping that will change by the end of our conversation."

"What exactly will that be about?" Harry asked, careful to not seem to forward.

"Your future." McGonagall replied. "I was told by our new Minister of Magic that you have declined his invitation to join the Aurors."

"I have."

"May I ask why? It was my understanding that becoming an Auror was your greatest dream."

"That dream changes when you spend an entire year focusing on killing a single Dark wizard. I can't imagine even considering doing something like that for the rest of my life."

"Joining the Aurors doesn't have to be for the rest of your life." McGonagall reasoned. "You could always join for the next couple of years and then leave when you feel your time is up."

"I took care of Voldemort, Professor. My time is up now." Harry insisted.

McGonagall considered him for a moment. Much Dumbledore, McGonagall seemed to possess the ability to look straight through a person. Harry knew now that Dumbledore had been performing some basic levels of Legilimency on him during those instances in an attempt to discern just how truthful Harry was being.

"If that's the case, then I would offer you a place back at Hogwarts."

This was just as Harry had expected. There were rumors that the expected attendance of the school for the upcoming fall term was going to be significantly reduced from years past. Considering enrollment had already been dwindling in the years before Harry started at the boarding school, that was a frightening development.

Harry's presence at the school would certainly be publicized in an attempt to instill confidence in the school's security and the safety of its students.

"I'm sorry, Professor. I'm not certain that I want to be a student again."

"What about a teacher?"

That was not what Harry expected.

"Excuse me?"

"I cannot simply give you the position. Unfortunately, it is required by the Ministry of Magic that you finish your NEWTS in order to become a professor at this school. However, if you returned to school, you could begin an apprenticeship in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Once your year of schooling finished, you would be able to do your year of required extended education co-teaching with our current professors."

Harry was stunned. He had expected the pitch to be about returning as a student. But the idea of returning as a teacher-in-training was not at all what Harry had expected.

"I don't know what to say."

"Consider the offer. That's all I need from you today." McGonagall smirked. "By the end of July, I need to know one way or the other. My professors have agreed to the position regardless but their futures will be determined by your choice."

"Who are the professors?"

"Bill and Fleur Weasley." McGonagall replied. "Bill signed a one year contract while he waits for his employment with Gringotts to be reinstated. Fleur is signed for two years. Once her contract is up, you would take the position full-time."

"They're okay with that?"

"They both agreed to the position as a temporary solution until you had finished completing your qualifications, which we all agree are woefully unnecessary and yet entirely mandatory."

A dozen different thoughts raced through Harry's head. But the first one was the one that Harry uttered.

"Why me?"

The response he got was not one he expected. Instead of answering with words, Minerva McGonagall laughed. Not a small chuckle or a grin, not like McGonagall normally would have done. Instead, this laugh came from deep within, a belly laugh like that of a child.

"What?" Harry asked, surprised by her reaction.

"Potter, one day, I hope that you can truly understand your place in the world." McGonagall commented gently. "There are a few names from every generation that last beyond their current generation and then there are the one or two whose names will become ubiquitous for all time."

"That just means that I am famous for something that I had no control over."

"Not anymore." McGonagall fired back. "For sixteen years, your story was defined by the death of your parents. But when people tell the story of Harry Potter, that day will not longer be the one they mention first. It will be May 2nd, 1998."

If he was being honest, Harry had never truly considered that his legacy would be changed by what he had done. In his mind, he would always be The Boy Who Lived, regardless of what he did with the rest of his life.

"What does that have to do with me being a professor?"

"Because your legacy from The Battle will not be about how you fought Voldemort or how you appeared to come back from the dead a second time. It will be about how you returned to Hogwarts and inspired us all to fight back. I am certain you saw how your classmates reacted when you returned. For months, they had been simply surviving. Your return to the castle, even though you brought only two others with you, meant that they could finally fight back."

"Why?" Harry asked earnestly. "They could have fought without me."

"And they did. But it wasn't the same. Harry, since you were eleven years old, you have been inspiring others. You convinced two first years to go after the Sorcerer's Stone. You managed to convince half the wizarding world that Voldemort had returned without any of them actually seeing him. Harry, you quite literally led a wizarding army in your fifth year against an oppressive government."

McGonagall leaned over the table, her hands just underneath her chin with her fingertips touching. In that moment, with her glasses slightly hiding her eyes behind them, it was amazing how much she reminded him of his former Headmaster.

"Your ability to inspire others is what sets you apart from everyone else with your abilities, impressive as they are. I believe that above all else, this is the job of a teacher. Students will listen to you because of what you have seen and because of who you are. Others would abuse that power but I know you, Harry, and I know that you understand the burden of leadership and the power that it can have. In addition, once you finish your extra year of education before taking the position, your combined experience and expertise would make you the most qualified candidate for the position not named Kingsley Shacklebolt or Gawain Robards, both of whom have no interest in the position."

Professor Minerva McGonagall was not known for idle flattery so Harry knew that she meant every word of what she said. Harry attempted to find the words to express to her what her opinion meant to him but in the end, he found his words to be lacking. Instead, he simply nodded his thanks to her.

"As I said, Mr. Potter, I do not require an answer from you today." McGonagall replied as she stood from her seat. "But do give it some thought. I think that you could do great things if you stayed."

"I will." Harry croaked, his voice suddenly malfunctioning. McGonagall nodded gently and then with a whisk of her cloak that subtly reminded Harry of his former Potions Master, she was gone. Harry remained seated for the next several minutes, considering what might lie in his future.

The idea of returning to Hogwarts fascinated him. Of that, there was no doubt. But like Ron, Harry had enjoyed the idea of beginning a life outside of school. However, Harry realized that when he tried to imagine that, he came up with nothing. At the very least, he could spend the next year at Hogwarts and if he decided that he didn't want to stay, there was nothing keeping him from leaving.

Harry returned to Grimmauld Place and dedicated the rest of his evening to the continued renovation of the home, spending most of his time attempting to get the chandelier in the newly created dining room attached to the ceiling. Since it had not been originally part of the house, it was considerably harder to fix than the rest of the house had been. After nearly an hour of work, Harry flipped the light switch and the room glowed with the light of the hundred magical candles that were inside the chandelier.

This was a kind of magic that Harry had never truly explored before. When he had started remodeling Grimmauld Place, he had never expected how much he would enjoy the work. However, the fact that Harry was finally able to find a use for magic other than trying to harm other people was likely a contributing factor.

As Harry flipped the lights off, Hermione and Ginny, back from her date with Neville, entered the room, envelopes in hand.

"What are those?" Harry asked.

"You'll want to read it yourself." Hermione replied, a look of worry on her face.

Taking the envelope with his name on it, Harry tore it open and pulled out a letter from the Ministry of Magic.

 _Harry James Potter,_

 _In the aftermath of The Battle of Hogwarts, eleven Death Eaters and one ally were captured by members of the Order of the Phoenix, a paramilitary organization under the leadership of Albus Dumbledore, then Alastor Moody and finally Kingsley Shacklebolt. Due to the outstanding nature of the crimes these men and women have been accused of committing, the Ministry of Magic has established a tribunal court for the specific purpose of trying these offenders and, if necessary, establishing the appropriate measure of punishment._

 _This tribunal will hear testimony from over one hundred people in relation to the crimes of the accused. Due to the expected value of your testimony, you have been called to testify on the whereabouts and actions of the following individuals:_

 _Amycus Carrow  
Antonin Dolohov  
Gregory Goyle Sr  
Fenrir Greyback  
Samuel Jugson  
Rabastan Lestrange  
Rodolphus Lestrange  
William Mulciber Jr  
WIlliam Mulciber Sr  
Augustus Rookwood  
Dolores Umbridge  
Corbin Yaxley_

 _The date of your testimony has yet to be established. You will receive a letter one week before your anticipated date of testimony. Testimony is mandatory. Failure to report to the Ministry of Magic on your assigned date will result in the appropriate legal action taken against you by the Ministry of Magic._

 _The tribunal will begin on July 1 and is expected to last as long as six months._

 _Questions and/or concerns are to be directed to the Office of the Minister of Magic._

 _Robert Robinson  
Chief Warlock of The Death Eater Tribunal Committee_

Harry read the entire letter twice before looking up at the other two.

"Who did you guys get called to testify against?" Harry asked.

"Dolohov, Greyback and Umbridge." Hermione replied.

"The same plus Carrow." Ginny added. "I can't believe this is really happening. These bastards deserve everything this Tribunal throws at them."

"They do." Harry admitted. "But they have to do this the right way and so do we."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"First, I need to talk to Kingsley. There's certain part of our story that I don't want on the public record."

"How would you avoid that?" Hermione questioned him.

"If Kingsley could get me to testify in front of the Wizengamot, I could tell them the entire story and then lock it behind a protective order from the Minister of Magic. That would allow the Tribunal to access it for reference and I wouldn't have to recount that information in public."

"That means letting the Wizengamot know about….them." Hermione said with a sideways glance at Ginny.

"Horcruxes." Harry replied, looking pointedly at the both of them. "I should have trusted more people with that information to begin with. Ginny, the short story is that Voldemort broke his soul into seven pieces and hid them in magical artifacts across the country. We had to destroy them before he could be killed."

"Oh damn." Ginny whispered before her eyes suddenly widened with realization. "The diary. It felt so real. Was it…"

"Yes, it was a Horcrux." Harry confirmed. Immediately, Ginny's face went from one of confusion to rage. Before Ginny could explode, he took her by the shoulders. "Yes, we should have told you. I realize that now, Gin. We made some mistakes about this whole thing. If I could go back and do everything over again, there are at least two dozen things that I would do differently. As it is, we can't go back and we can't change them. I should have told you then. I didn't but I'm telling you now. You are the only person other than Ron and Hermione that knows the whole story."

Hermione coughed gently at the idea that Harry had told Ginny the whole story. For a moment, Harry was confused as to what she meant.

The Forest. That's what she meant, Harry realized.

"What is that?" Ginny asked when she noticed Hermione's reaction.

"That...is a part of the story that I'm not ready to tell yet." Harry said, his head dropping gently. "That part is personal."

"Who knows it?" Ginny asked.

"Just her." Harry admitted. "Not even Ron knows that part."

Harry could tell that the knowledge that Harry would choose to tell Hermione but not her hurt. But, Harry could also tell that she understood why. Ginny had grown up a lot over the last few years and her understanding of his relationship with Hermione was better than anyone else's. She knew what the world couldn't quite seem to understand: Harry and Hermione were certainly connected in a way that Ron and her weren't but that didn't mean that they were in love with each other. Hermione was the closest thing that Harry would ever have to a sister. Anyone that stood a chance of having a valuable relationship with Harry needed to understand that there was no one that Harry trusted more than Hermione, something that was not likely to change even if either one of them ever got married.

"Well, maybe one day." Ginny said gently. "I'm just glad you have someone that can share your burden. No one deserves to have all that weight on their shoulders without some help."

"Thanks, Gin." Harry replied earnestly, genuinely happy that she understood where he was coming from and who he was. At this point, she understood that far better than her brother, a shocking reality considering how much more time Harry had spent with Ron than her.

Harry supposed that there was probably some truth that girls mature faster than boys, especially one who had been through as much in her life as GInny.

"You really intend to tell the Ministry of Magic about the Horcruxes?" Hermione asked. "I know you said something about that before but I thought you were kidding."

"If I tell them the whole story, one time, I can get that story locked away. Forever, hopefully. If not, at least it will be a few years and we'll have captured all of Voldemort's lackeys by then."

"Here's hoping." Ginny replied. "The Malfoys are still out there."

It was true. The leading Death Eater family had disappeared from Hogwarts sometime after The Battle. No one knew where they had gone but Harry widely suspected that they had managed to flee the country. It was one of his great regrets that Lucius Malfoy wouldn't get what he was owed: a jail cell until he died of old age.

"I'm sure Kingsley and The Aurors will catch them." Hermione assured her.

"Here's hoping." Harry agreed quietly. Harry turned to walk away before he heard the sound of a piece of paper hitting the ground. Looking down, he saw that another piece of paper had fallen out of Hermione's envelope.

"Hermione, what's that?" Harry asked.

"I'm not certain. I didn't see that before." she said as she leaned down to pick it up. Gently pulling it open, Hermione's eyes scanned the small piece of paper. As she did, her eyes seem to pick up speed, reading at speeds that Harry couldn't have even imagined without a massive headache.

"What is it?" Ginny asked gently. Clearly, whatever it was was important based on the look in Hermione's eyes. Finally, she looked up, a grin on her face wider than Harry had ever seen.

"They found my parents. We leave in two days to go and get them."


	9. Nine

With the news from Arthur that the Grangers had been found in Australia, things moved quickly for Harry and Hermione. Almost the entire rest of the evening was spent packing. While Hermione's parents had been found, there was no telling how long it was going to take for Harry and Hermione to reach them, restore their memories and then convince them to return home. This meant that each of them had some housekeeping to do before they left.

While Harry wasn't exactly certain what Hermione was doing with her last day before they left, he knew what he was going to do: spend a day with his godson. With everything going on, Harry was a bit ashamed to have let Andromeda and Teddy fall through the cracks. But, when Andromeda opened the door to an apologizing Harry, she assured him that everything was alright and led him into the house.

Harry had seen his godson only one time since his birth: the day of the memorial service. Even then, it had only been for a few moments. Thankfully, little Edward Lupin was only six weeks old, which meant that for the most part, he slept and ate. Harry hadn't missed any words or steps or even crawling.

However, the moment that Andromeda dropped the infant into his arms, Harry could literally feel the weight of Remus and Tonks' death wash over him again. They had given up everything for the bundle that Harry carried in his arms. The young man Harry held would never have a father or a mother but the moment that he saw Teddy's hair change from a bright green to jet black, Harry vowed that he would always have a family.

Always.

The frequency with which the child changed his appearance was almost shocking to Harry. It seemed that about once a minute, Teddy was changing something about his appearance. The most shocking of these was a moment where Teddy created a replica of Harry's scar on his forehead while his hair was shaggy and blonde, giving him the look of a hybrid Harry-Malfoy child.

The thought alone horrified Harry and made Andromeda nearly fall out of her chair she was laughing so hard.

For nearly two hours, Harry and Andromeda sat in the living room of their home, watching Teddy play on the floor and almost absent-mindedly talked about nothing. However, when Teddy eventually got too tired and feel asleep on the floor, Andromeda stood and carried the young man to a baby carrier on the far side of the room.

When Andromeda sat down, she suddenly looked as if she were fifteen years older, heavy wrinkles that Harry swore hadn't been there earlier surrounded her heavily lidded eyes. Harry didn't think that he had seen someone look so tired in his entire life.

Of course, Harry hadn't seen himself in a mirror after The Battle of Hogwarts.

"How are things?" Harry asked.

"Well, you don't expect to have an infant when you're nearly fifty." Andromeda said, her eyes almost dead as she stared forward, her gaze boring a hole into the wall across from her. "Especially not a few months after your husband dies and definitely not when it's actually your grandchild, because your daughter is dead."

Of all the people affected in the war, Andromeda Tonks may have lost more than anyone in such a short period of time. Still, she put on a good face for her grandson, doing everything possible for him. Immediately, Harry felt guilty that he hadn't been around to help. When he went to say as much, he was immediately cut off by the older woman.

"If you apologize to me one more time, son, I'll kick you out of my house right now." Andromeda said with a steely gaze. "You have had more than enough on your plate."

"I haven't had anything on my plate recently."

"Take some time to enjoy it. According to Minerva, it won't last long."

"You talk to McGonagall?"

Andromeda nodded. "When you're a Lestrange who isn't into dark magic, Hogwarts can be a hard place for you. While she never looked out for me, I was in Slytherin after all, she kept me safe more than once when a few of the more aggressive members of my House tried to take me down a peg."

"That sounds like her."

"Are you going to take her up on her offer?" Andromeda asked.

"I'm thinking about it." Harry admitted. "It would be fun to be able to just worry about school for a year at least. Not have to think about too much."

"You clearly haven't started studying enough for the Defense NEWT. It's a bitch."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry said with a chuckle. "To be honest, it just came as such a surprise that I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it."

"Get used to being looked up to, Harry. It's only going to happen for the rest of your life."

"So I've been told." Harry scoffed. "Hermione and I are going to Australia tomorrow. She sent her parents there to keep them safe from the war."

"Smart, that girl."

"Well, she modified their memories so we'll see about that." Harry said with concern. "I know that she hasn't mentioned it out loud but she is terrified that they will have changed permanently."

"From what I have heard about Hermione Granger, if she did the modification, they'll be right as rain once she's done with them."

"That's what I tried to tell her but Hermione….she just worries. It's what she does."

Andromeda shifted in her seat slightly, as if something that Harry had said intrigued her. "Speaking of Hermione, may I be so bold as to ask what is the deal with you two?"

"Oh, not you too."

"Harry, let's be honest here, I don't know you all that well, all things considered, and I know Hermione less. But I have never seen two people who are as close as the two of you."

"That doesn't mean anything." Harry retorted.

"Of course it does!" Andromeda countered, her voice rising for just a moment. After a nervous look over her shoulder confirmed that Teddy was, in fact, still asleep, she pressed forward.

"I'm not saying that you have to marry the girl."

"Well, you might be the only one."

"It's because none of us understand the two of you." Andromeda explained. "When two kids grow up together and care for each other as much as you two obviously do, the natural inclination of everyone is to assume that you should get married. It's the way people work."

"Our relationship isn't like that."

"Then what is it?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because you, not her boyfriend, is going to Australia with her tomorrow and you are the godfather of my grandson and if something would happen to me, you would be the person asked to take over responsibility for him. I want to know more about you, Harry. It's not that I don't trust you. I would be insane if I didn't trust you. But I want to know _you_ more, not the version of you that I will spend the next fifty years reading about in the paper."

She had a point. Andromeda, while not someone that Harry knew particularly well now, was going to become a part of Harry's family. With his duties as Teddy's godfather, there was a one hundred percent chance of that coming to pass.

So, Harry finally articulated, to the best of his ability, the question that people had been asking him for years.

The same question that Harry had refused to answer: what was the deal with him and Hermione?

"There are few things that I value more than loyalty." Harry started softly, not exactly sure how to express himself properly.

How do you quantify your relationship with a person who feels like a part of you?

"When I first started at Hogwarts, I was naive. Having lived the hell that was my childhood, I believed the best intentions of everyone. I saw the world in white and black, good people and Death Eaters. I have a lot of people in my life. In that regard, for someone who is an orphan and grew up in an abusive home, I am lucky."

"But as the years have passed, trusting others is something that I'm finding harder and harder to do. Almost once a year from the time I started Hogwarts until the time that I left, something would happen that would make me a sort of school-wide pariah. The Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's return and The Goblet of Fire, hell...even the points I lost as a first year just before we were set to win the House Cup. In each of those instances, I went from savior to destroyer in moments."

"And in those moments, I got to see people for who they really are. First year, most of the school abandoned me when I lost those points. Now, I couldn't really blame them there. They didn't know the whole story. But already, I was beginning to see who really trusted me and who were my friends because I was Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived."

"It was my second year and the Chamber of Secrets where I really understood what people are like. I was a Parseltongue and the Chamber of Secrets, created by the most famous Parseltongue of all time, had been opened and something was attacking students. Sure, factually, that all makes sense. But people actually believed that I was capable of opening the Chamber of Secrets. They believed that I was attacking Muggleborns! Me? The person whose own mother was a Muggleborn witch!"

"Again, the facts were on their side there, even if they were a little out of order. But the thing that got me, the thing made me understand who was there for me and who wasn't was the Goblet of Fire. Triwizard Tournament comes to Hogwarts, great! _Eternal glory goes to the winner!_ Well, I already have that so no thanks, I'll pass. Even better, an Age Line is set up around The Goblet, ensuring that no one under the age of seventeen can enter. People even watched the Weasley twins attempt to cross the line and fail!"

"Yet, when my name came out of the hat, everyone turned on me. Everyone….even Ron. Even Ron, my best friend in the whole world, the first person who I really met in the wizarding world who liked me for me and not just because I was the most famous person in the country."

"But Hermione didn't. Even when I am certain that everyone mocked her for her belief in me. I'm certain that people talked behind her back. Nevertheless, she persisted. The only time that she and I ever truly disagreed on something was when she was concerned that Sirius Black had sent me my Firebolt."

"He did, didn't he?"

"Yes but at the time, he was an escaped convict, so she was right not to trust him." Harry countered. "Through thick and thin, even when the things that came out of my mouth sounded downright insane, she was there. She may have disagreed with me. In fact, she disagreed with me often. But she never left. She never abandoned me. She gave up a year of time with her parents to help me."

"She stayed when Ron didn't." Harry said, his voice cracking as the memory of that night in the tent flooded his mind.

"What do you mean?"

For a moment, Harry didn't answer. He wasn't trying to assassinate Ron's character. He was just trying to explain why Hermione was so close to him and him to her. But, Harry realized that he couldn't fully explain that without explaining Ron's departure, so he pressed on.

"While we were hiding, we came across as an….artifact. It was important for helping to kill Voldemort but it...did things to you while it was around. It brought out the worst in you. It didn't create any thoughts that you weren't already having. It just made you say them instead of hiding them."

"It did this to Ron, I assume?"

Harry nodded.

 _You don't know what it's like. You don't have a family._

"He said terrible things. Things he never would have said if that wasn't around. But it was around all of us and Hermione and I, while we had our troubles with it, we never let it beat us."

"But it beat him." Harry sighed. "We fought and in his anger, he left. Ron asked her to go with him before he left. She said no. She said that they had promised to help and that she was going to stay with me. Since then, I think all three of us have rationalized that night. We said that Hermione chose the mission over everything else."

"Is it true?"

"It's not." Harry admitted. "We didn't have anything to go on. We were lost. At that moment in time, there was no mission. We were hiding because we were the three most wanted people in the country, not because we were on some sort of secret mission."

"When push came to shove, when she was given the choice to leave, she stayed. She chose me. She trusted me. In the end, it's why Hermione and Ron will never work. Ron will never truly forget that. He'll say he will but I know Ron. Ron is a great person and one of my closest friends. But he's also petty and exceedingly self-conscious. He won't forget. Neither will I."

"Because he left."

"I could forgive him for leaving me." Harry whispered, his voice hardly carrying across the room. "But I knew how much he cared for her and he left her anyway. He didn't have to stay with her while she cried to herself at night. He didn't have to be with her when every twitch in the forest might have been him coming back. He doesn't have the slightest clue as to what he did to her. He thinks that because he came back and told her that he was wrong, that everything will be alright."

"But it won't be alright. In the end, the only person in my life who has never betrayed my trust is Hermione. The only person who has never abandoned me in a time of need is Hermione. The only person who could consistently disagree with me without ever making it seem like she was attacking me is Hermione. She is my best friend. She's my sister. She's...a part of me."

"Did Ginny Weasley ever betray you in some way?"

"No." Harry replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you said that Hermione was the only person to never betray your trust. But if Ginny never betrayed you, then why are you pushing her away? I heard from Arthur that you aren't seeing her anymore."

"We're not together if that's what you mean. But she is living with Hermione and I." Harry replied. "But you are right. Ginny has never betrayed my trust. That's why she's living with me and Ron isn't."

Andromeda leaned back, clearly exhausted by the weight of everything that Harry had dropped on her. Harry wondered if she would have asked the question at all if she had known what kind of answer she was in for.

"I understand." Andromeda said. "And if you don't think Ginny is the right person for you anymore, then that's fine, as long as the two of you keep that trust. Just a piece of advice, Harry: you have more on your shoulders than anyone should ever have to bear. You'll always need help with that. You say you don't have any romantic inclinations towards Hermione, that's fine. But as time goes on, both of you are going to need to find someone who isn't each other to lean on. If it's not Ron and it's not Ginny, then who is it?"

Harry didn't know the answer to that question. For years, it had been Ron and Hermione. Now, it seemed like it was Hermione and Ginny. Harry knew that she was right. Eventually, life would normalize (whatever that meant) and Harry and Hermione would drift apart. Harry doubted that he would ever have another best friend but eventually, they would both move on. Hermione would move away and so would Ginny and if Harry didn't move on with us life, he would be left alone at Grimmauld Place.

But the question remained: who else did Harry have to lean on?

"Find someone, Harry. Look outside your circle. You might be surprised by what you find."

Harry knew that Andromeda was likely right. With the war over, Harry needed to "broaden his horizons" a bit more than just the Gryffindors he normally associated with, especially if Harry wanted to pioneer a world that stop judging people based on what House they were in once they left school.

Harry stayed for another hour or two, eating dinner with Andromeda and young Teddy, who changed his hair so that it was a pattern that almost resembled plaid. Harry realized that it based on the design of a sweater that Andromeda wore in the evenings when her house would get cold.

It was late when Harry arrived back at Grimmauld Place. The house was oddly quiet with the other two asleep. Still, Harry made sure to enjoy his evening on the balcony once more before he left for Australia with Hermione. That night, no screams came from Ginny's room and after a single glass of firewhiskey, Harry was off to bed, dreams of his technicolored godson floating through his mind.

Far from the chaos that had been a staple of The Burrow on the days when the Weasleys would leave for school, Harry, Hermione and Ginny woke up casually the following morning. They ate a leisurely breakfast before Harry and Hermione gathered all of their things in the entryway and then Apparated to the appropriate destination: a secret area at London's Heathrow Airport where witches and wizards utilizing Muggle transportation were able to effectively bypass all the Muggle security, which was helpful since neither Harry or Hermione had current Muggle passports, something that Harry realized would be helpful in the future.

When the three of them arrived, they were pleased to see that a group had gathered to send them off. The entire Weasley family, Ron included, had come to wish them well as had Kingsley, giving Hermione some last minute information to give to their contact at the Australian Ministry. As that happened, Ron approached Harry.

At first, Harry was uncertain how Ron would act and so he kept a clear distance from his friend. Harry just hoped that he didn't yet know that Harry had slept with his sister. Apparently, he did not as the first thing Ron did when he approached Harry was extend his hand.

"I'm sorry." Ron said shamefully as he shook Harry's hand. "I never should have said those things to you."

"I know. Do you know why?"

"Because you would never take advantage of Hermione like that."

"More importantly, because _Hermione_ would never allow herself to be taken advantage of, Ron." Harry said, his voice cracking in a barely contained fury. "You think so little of her to assume that she would just throw herself at me? Or that I would be able to trick her?"

"Obviously not." Ron muttered before looking up at Harry, his eyes finally meeting Harry's. "Listen, I am...not handling things well right now. I am working on it. Percy and I are moving into together. We found a flat in London."

"How is that going to help?"

"I needed to get away from The Burrow." Ron explained. "It's just too much for me right now. I see Fred everywhere and I can't help but think that there's something we could have done. It's driving me mental."

"But it's not going to help. Certainly, there were things we could have done differently. Were there things we could have done better? Likely. But those things are in the past now and we can't linger on them."

"I'm doing my best, mate." Ron replied. "I'm just hoping that getting away from home and finding a bit of myself in the world will do me some good."

"I hope it does." Harry answered honestly. "Have you talked to her?"

Ron's gaze snapped to Hermione, his eyes become sad instantly.

"I did. We talked a bit last night while you were at Andromeda's. We've agreed that things aren't going to work for us right now. Not with Fred's presence lingering over everything and her parents still halfway around the world. Maybe one day but definitely not now. I'm aware that sounds like wishful thinking but honestly, I'm not expecting anything."

If Harry was being honest with himself, he was a bit relieved. The last thing he wanted was for either of them to be unhappy, so if that meant being with each other, Harry would have supported them until the day he died. But, Harry couldn't see how their relationship would end up leading to anything more than spite, jealousy and anger. As friends, they were perfectly compatible with a buffer between them, often Harry himself. But as partners, with no one to hold them at arm's' length from each other, Harry couldn't imagine that how that would end without the world bloodshed flashing into his mind.

"Yeah." Harry said, not exactly certain how to respond to the news honestly without offending Ron.

"Plus, I couldn't imagine leaving home right now. I may be moving out but I will probably still stop by The Burrow a few times a week. Mum and Dad don't deserve to be alone right now either."

"So you wouldn't have gone if she had asked you?" Harry asked.

Ron considered the question for a moment. "I can't say. Honestly, probably not. I would have said yes, of course, but I think I would have lost my nerve at the last moment."

"Makes sense." Harry replied.

"Anyway, good trip." Ron said awkwardly as he suddenly turned away. Harry was about to ask why he was being so weird when Harry saw Hermione and George approaching him, making the reason for Ron's abrupt departure quite obvious.

"Harry, George has a proposal for us."

"That's very nice, Hermione, but we're not married and I'm not interested in a third wheel." Harry said, chuckling to himself at the terrible joke.

"Oh, Harry, you really should leave the jokes to me." George said, a smirk on his face. "I come with a simple question: would the two of you allow me to accompany you to Australia?"

"Why?" Harry blurted out without a second thought.

"I need to get away from….all of this for a little while. Ron's moving out of The Burrow and that's great for him but I can't do that. When I look in the mirror, I see my brother. When I go home, I see my brother. When I go to work or Hogsmeade or do just about anything, I see Fred." George said, the despair evident in his voice but highly contrasted by the lack of energy with which he spoke.

"I just need to get away from the things that remind me of him for the moment. I need to take some time to sort myself out."

"We're not going on vacation, George." Harry reminded gently.

"I'm aware. Hermione filled me in on the details."

"Some of them." Hermione interrupted.

"In either case, I just want to get away and I'm certain that the two of you have no use for a third person since you are both remarkably self-sufficient. And yet, I offer my services anyway."

That tone, the clever use of wordplay: it almost sounded like the old George for a moment.

Harry looked at Hermione and in that moment, Harry knew that he had no choice but to accept. The look in Hermione's eyes reminded Harry that while Hermione's family may not have been permanently lost, they had been lost to their daughter for the better part of a year. While it certainly wasn't the same as losing your twin brother, it was traumatic nonetheless.

The empathy and compassion that Harry saw in Hermione's eyes meant that George was most definitely coming, no questions asked. Harry chuckled, nodded his head in resignation and shook George's hand, welcoming him to their little vacation group. Thankfully, the plane that they were flying on included a first class section entirely for witches and wizards, which made it easy for Hermione to speak with Kingsley and arrange another ticket and accommodation for George once they arrived in Canberra, the capital of Australia and the home to the Australian Ministry of Magic.

Once Harry, Hermione and George finished saying their goodbyes to the rest of the Weasleys, they were escorted directly to their plane by Kingsley, who had suddenly changed out of his typically eclectic wizarding attire into a plain black suit, something that would have been right at home had he been the Prime Minister and not the Minister of Magic. Still, it was strange to see Kingsley in such normal clothing.

Harry had never been on an airplane before, although he had seen them far more frequently than George, who spent almost the entire first ten minutes they were seated on the plane messing with the variety of buttons and switches near his first class seat. While this section was specifically for witches and wizards, there was nothing magical about the plane. It simply meant that they could talk about whatever they wanted and the noise-cancelling ward that had been placed around their area meant that the Muggles on the plane would have no idea they were talking about magic.

The flight to Canberra was an all-day event. The trio left London at just after noon in London. The plane landed first in Cairo and then Bangkok before finally landing in Sydney. Each landing lasted roughly an hour which meant that, all told, the journey from London to Sydney lasted roughly thirty-six hours, a grueling day and a half of sitting in an airplane. While the service and space in the plane meant that they could get up and move around, the novelty of flying only last an hour or so for Harry and Hermione and only an hour longer for George.

Unfortunately, their journey wasn't quite done. After an hour spent in Sydney, they were on one final light to the capital city of Canberra. While the flight was short, just over an hour, it felt like another day in itself. They landed in the capital and were escorted to a hotel near the Ministry of Magic where they would be taken the following day once they had time to rest. Unfortunately, with all of the time changes from London to Australia, it was just after noon in Australia, which meant that despite their best efforts, none of the three were able to sleep much due to the daylight pouring in their windows.

Later that evening, Harry gathered with Hermione and George and went with them to dinner at the hotel's restaurant, a rather enjoyable Australian barbeque meal that none of them had ever experienced before. However, by the time that dinner was over, fatigue was finally starting to settle in on the three of them. Each of them returned to their separate rooms where they each collapsed from travel exhaustion.

In the morning, after a quick breakfast at the same restaurant, they were led by another Australian Ministry official to the secret entrance of their Ministry. Much like the British Ministry, the entrance hid in plain sight: a broom closet inside an abandoned subway tunnel gave way to a large Atrium, much like the hidden entrance to Diagon Alley inside The Leaky Cauldron. The ceilings inside the Atrium were much higher than the ones in the British Ministry, which suggested that the building, unlike their own Ministry, was not an underground structure.

Their escort, sensing Harry's confusion, filled him in.

"Our Ministry building is located somewhere in the middle of the Outback." he said through his thick Australian accent, something that Hermione, Harry had noticed, found quite enjoyable. "However, the entrances are all located in Canberra. There are anti-Mug charms everywhere. Plus, you have to be right nutters in order to walk all the way out here."

"I suppose." Harry chuckled. "Where are we going?"

"You have a meeting with the Minister herself, Andrea Jean Williams. She's been working with the Aurors in charge of finding your parents." the man said. "Name's Jack, by the way, Jack Williams."

"What's your job around here, Jack?" George asked. Jack was an older man, likely into his fifties. He stood taller than almost anyone Harry had ever met. In fact, he wouldn't have been surprised if he was taller than Dumbledore had been. His skin was tanned and scarred, including one particularly nasty one that slashed from his right ear to the center of his forehead, bisecting one his eyebrows in two. His blonde hair appeared to be receding slightly in the front but it still hung long, just barely touching his collar in the back. Overall, it gave Jack a very "rough around the edges" look.

"I used to be Auror before I decided that jumping in front of Dark curses wasn't the life for me."

"Is that how you got the scar?" Harry asked, aware of the irony that he was able to ask someone else that question.

"Nah. That was from an incident with a wallaby." Jack said, a smirk on his face and a glint in his eyes that meant that Harry couldn't tell if he was kidding or not. "Nowadays, I just run errands for my wife."

"Your wife is the Minister of Magic?" Hermione questioned. It was clear that Hermione was surprised that someone like him was married to the chief politician in the country.

"Australia's a bit rougher than you Brits are used to." Jack explained as they stopped in front of a solid oak door. "Andy used to be an Auror herself. Has more arrests than any Aurors before or after, male or female. If you think I'm a tough bloke, wait 'til you get a load o' her."

As he said that, he opened the door, leading them into the office of Andrea Jean Williams, Minister of Magic. The room was exactly as Harry expected for someone who used to be an Auror. There wasn't much on the shelves in the room but what was there seemed to be some sort of magical detector or Dark Wizard revealer.

Alastor Moody would have been proud.

"Andy, I got three kids here to see ya." Jack said, a wink at Harry as he did so.

"Jack, you do know who they are, don't you?" Andrea said, barely looking up from the paperwork in front of her. When she did, Harry saw that Jack was right. If Jack appeared to be tough, then that was nothing compared to his wife. While she didn't have a scar like Jack, there were more than a few marks on her face that indicated several close calls, including one just above her left eye.

But for everything else that made her appear capable and rough, it was her eyes that made her look lethal. Her eyes were an amber color, making it look as if Harry was staring some kind of bird of prey directly in the eye. Harry had stared death and Voldemort in the eye but the gaze of Andrea Jean Williams made him feel more than a bit uncomfortable.

"Of course I do, ma'am, but they are still a bit on the young side."

"Young or not, these three are to be respected." Andrea said as she finally stood and made her way to the three of them, shaking each of their hands with a firm grip.

"Your husband has been nothing but respectful." Harry assured her. "We have greatly enjoyed his company."

"Well, live with him for thirty years, I'm sure you'll change your tune." The words sounded rough but the smile and accompanying kiss on the cheek for her husband betrayed their meaning. "Please have a seat."

Harry, Hermione and George each sat in the plush seats that faced Andrea's desk, sinking into the deep cushions as they did.

"We've managed to locate your parents, Miss Granger." Andrea said firmly, her accent noticeably lighter than her husband's. "Fortunate for everyone, they settled on Lake George. It's about a forty minute drive from Canberra to their home. They've rented out a location for their dentistry practice. We've already taken the liberty of ensuring that there will be people to take over the clients your parents have been serving when they leave."

"Do they seem happy or suspicious?"

"What was the nature of the charm that you put on your parents?" Andrea asked.

"Memory modification. I buried their memories under the false identities that I created for them."

"Allowing your parents' personalities to inform their new identities." Andrea finished. "It's a smart way of going about altering them. I must warn you, however, that restoring their memories won't be easy as a result."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because once I restore their identities, they'll still remember everything that happened while they lived here as if it were them."

"Because it was." George replied. "You basically just made them forget their original names and the fact that you exist but you left the rest of them intact."

"Correct." Hermione answered. "It was the best way. They would have lived good lives if...if we-if I didn't return."

Again, Harry was reminded of just how much Hermione had sacrificed to join him.

"In any case, once we processed Minister Shacklebolt's request on your behalf, we were able to find Wendell and Monica Wilkins rather quickly. We will be able to take you and your friends to your parents' home. However, once you are there, we will not be able to approach until you are ready to leave."

"We have stricter laws around wizards in Muggle areas than you do." Jack added. "Makes it tough to do much, but it also makes it a touch harder for them to find out about us."

"I understand." Hermione said. "When can we go?"

"I have a car ready to go now." Andrea replied. "When you are ready to leave, all you will need to do is cast a Patronus Charm inside the home. We will have people watching the house with magical sensors. Once they detect the charm has been cast, they will send a car. It will take you directly to the airport and you'll board a plane home."

Andrea stood and moved around her desk, standing before Hermione and Harry.

"Before you leave, I just want to thank you for your actions against Riddle. My mother was English, roughly the same age as Riddle. Knew him from school. She said that he seemed to be a bit off then but no one noticed much. She was afraid that if he wasn't stopped in England, he would move on to the rest of the world."

"I don't doubt that he would have." Harry agreed. "It would have taken a while but he would have gotten here eventually."

"So thank you for your actions. The world could always use one less dark wizard."

Andrea motioned for Jack to lead them to their vehicle. They exited the Ministry the way the entered, leaving the broom closet and the abandoned rail station. When they did, there was a black luxury car parked outside. The hood ornament was a small M that Harry recognized as being remarkably similar to the M of the Ministry of Magic logo.

Sure enough, Jack pointed for the three of them to enter the car. When they did, the simple four door sedan suddenly became a full stretch limo on the inside. For forty minutes, Harry, Hermione and George plus Jack sat and stared out the windows, watching the city pass from their view, a lush countryside suddenly coming into view.

As they drove, Harry's attention turned from the passing woods outside to Hermione. The closer they got, the more nervous she appeared to become. Harry had known that she was nervous. Over the past two days, she had gotten quieter with each hour. While Hermione had never been the most talkative person, she certainly wasn't shy, especially around Harry.

But since they had arrived in Australia, Harry couldn't remember a time where she had strung two sentences together. He couldn't imagine what was running through her head.

Eventually, the lake came into view and with it, a single house sitting up on a cliff overlooking the massive lake below. How the Grangers had managed to purchase such an ideal home in only a year was a question worth asking but not at the current moment. Still, Harry was glad to see that the Grangers had certainly been enjoying their year away from England.

At least, they had lived somewhere with a hell of a view.

When the car stopped, Harry and George immediately got out of the car. It took Harry two or three steps before he realized that Hermione had not followed them. Walking back to the car, Harry looked inside to see Hermione, seemingly frozen in place. Harry waved to Jack and George for a moment alone before taking a seat in the car next to Hermione.

"Knut for your thoughts?"

"It's penny for your thought and you know it." Hermione muttered.

"Yeah but we're wizards now. Have been for some time actually."

"Harry, what if I screwed it up?" Hermione asked, a desperate anxiety suddenly flooding her body. It was clear that this is what she had been bottling up for the last few days. While Hermione was brilliant, probably the single smartest person he knew, he also knew that, somewhat like Ron, she dealt with anxiety. Unlike Ron, hers didn't come from jealousy or the expectations set by others but from failure.

Obviously, Harry could understand why she was concerned if she failed in this instance. But the fact remained that Harry could count on one hand the number of times that Hermione Granger had truly failed. She may have been wrong or assumed things incorrectly. But when given the time and the proper information, Hermione Granger simply did not fail. When it came to her parents, Harry strongly doubted that she had done anything to them until she was absolutely sure what she was doing.

When Harry reminded her of that, she smiled at him, clearly still struggling.

"I may have understood the kind of enchantment I was trying to cast, Harry, but the fact remains that I hadn't cast it before. My parents were an experiment. What if I was wrong?"

"One thing at a time, Hermione." Harry smiled. "How do you intend to reverse the charm?"

"It's really very simple: _Finite Incantatem."_

"That's all it takes?"

"The charm works until you tell it to stop working." Hermione explained. "In theory, that's all it should take."

"You're worried about that?"

"No, Harry." Hermione smirked. "I'm worried about what will happen when the charm has been cancelled. There are cases where people, especially Muggles, who have been bewitched like this have trouble letting go of their new personalities. Some of them even choose to keep their adopted personas."

"Your parents won't."

"How can you know that?"

"Because Wendell and Monica Wilkins don't have you."

For a moment, Hermione appeared to be speechless. Then, she simply leaned over and hugged Harry softly, allowing her body to be wrapped inside Harry's arms. Eventually, Harry felt her relax against him.

"Thank you." she whispered in his shoulder. "I don't deserve you."

"What are friends for if not helping you restore the memories of your amnesiac parents?" Harry asked as Hermione pulled away from him, laughing. "Let's go."

"OK. I'll follow you."

Harry took Hermione by the hand, pulling her from the car. When they left, Harry noticed that Hermione's hand remained in his for support. Rather than fighting against it, Harry simply gave Hermione's hand a good squeeze. He knew that back home, people would have once again confused what this meant for his relationship with Hermione.

But Harry didn't care what they thought then and he certainly wasn't going to care what they thought now with several thousand miles separating them.

Harry and Hermione lead the way up the driveway to the front door of the home with George following them. As the three of them got close to the door, Harry heard the sound of Jack's car door close and the car pull away, just as they had promised he would.

Finally, they reached the front door. Hermione's hand reached up to knock on the door, hesitating just before her hand hit the wood of the door. Rather than giving her another reprieve, Harry instead knocked on the door for her.

It took a few seconds for anyone to come to the door. But when the door opened and they came face to face with none other than Hermione's father, Harry couldn't help but smile.

That is until Harry remembered that it wasn't really Hermione's father in front of them. It was Wendell Wilkins, a man that Harry didn't know and that certainly didn't know the woman standing next to him.

"Who are you?"

This time, Hermione didn't freeze. Instead, she swiftly drew her wand and waved it in front of her father, whispering the incantation. Almost immediately, Wendell looked like he had been hit by a bus. The look on his face contorted from confusion to anger back to confusion then to happiness and then back to confusion again.

However, before he had a chance to speak, Harry cut him off.

"Mr. Granger, call your wife."

For a second, he paused as if he wasn't sure what to do. Then, he nodded and walked away from the door.

"Monica, there's someone at the door for you!" Harry could hear Mr. Granger shout.

Another few moments passed before the visage of Mrs. Granger came into view.

"Can I help you with something?" she said just the moment before Hermione's wand passed over her like it had her father seconds earlier.

Much like her husband, Mrs. Granger's expression dropped before flashing through a series of conflicting emotions. Again, like her husband, it settled on confusion.

"Hermione?"

Over the years, Harry had seen almost everything from Hermione Granger. But the one thing that he realized he hadn't really seen was pure and unadulterated joy.

Until that moment, that is.

Because the very moment that Hermione heard her name come out of her mother's mouth, Hermione's smile grew so wide that Harry feared that her face may crack in half. Only half a second later, Hermione threw herself at her mother, crushing her in a hug that Harry worried might break her back.

But as Harry watched the three of them, Harry quickly understood that Hermione's parents understood what had happened. They had been prepared for this possibility and they had known what it would mean. They did it to protect her.

They did it to protect him, someone they barely knew.

The Grangers invited Harry and George into their home, which they discovered they had purchased only a month earlier. Obviously, the Grangers had intended to stay at the time. But almost immediately after they entered the house, Hermione's mother made a joke about having to pack so quickly after they had finished unpacking.

After nearly two hours of conversation, each of Hermione's parents remembered both everything that happened before Hermione's memory modifications and after.

They understood what had happened and listened with rapt attention as Hermione told Harry, Hermione and Ron's story, albeit with a few redacted details for their benefit as well as George's.

They remembered everything.

They were returning home.

Harry could not remember a time that Hermione looked happier. But as he thought about it, she never had a reason to be this happy before. She was always looked down upon in their world by someone due to her heritage. Her best friend was the target of a homicidal maniac. Her other best friend was an extremely loyal, yet stubborn baboon of a man-child, a sentence that even Ron himself would have agreed with.

During that time, she had spent literal months separated from the only family she had known for the first decade of her life. Now, they had been returned to her, whole, along with both of her best friends. While Harry knew that Hermione wouldn't say that this was the happiest point in her life (many people had just died after all), Harry wasn't so certain that she wouldn't be lying.

Hermione and her parents were in the process of deciding how many days it would take them to pack up all of their belongings when the phone rang. Mrs. Granger got up to go and get the phone. When she answered it, she looked at it momentarily in confusion before turning to Harry.

"It's for you."

A very small list of people knew where Harry was at the moment and an even smaller group knew _exactly_ where he was. So, it was with some trepidation that Harry answered the phone.

"Hello?"

" _Harry, it's Kingsley."_

Kingsley would certainly be on the list of people that knew where he was. Obviously, he would be able to contact the Australian Ministry and get the phone number for the Granger's home.

"What can I do for you, Kingsley? I'm kind of busy."

" _I know and I'm sorry to interrupt. I will be arranging an emergency Portkey for you to take back home tomorrow morning."_

"Portkeys can work that far?"

" _They can if they're only taking one person."_

"The others aren't coming?" Harry asked which caught Hermione's attention.

" _Hermione and George can remain behind and assist in getting the Grangers ready for departure as per the original plan. I need you back tomorrow."_

"Why?"

" _Because six hours ago, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were captured by the Germans, attempting to cross into the country."_

"How?"

" _The Malfoys were declared fugitives by almost every country in Europe. When a Muggle fuel station on the French-German border was attacked by three people with matching white hair who seemed to use sticks as a weapon, the German and French organized search parties for them."_

"Why would they do that?" Harry asked, doing his best to remain discrete.

" _Likely, they were attempting to steal food. The Malfoys were left with nothing after The Battle. The Ministry seized all of their assets. The German Minister is a friend and his opponent in the last election was almost entirely funded by Malfoy. He was more than happy to return the Malfoys to us."_

"But, sir, what does this have to do with me?"

" _When they were brought back, each of them was taken to a separate holding cell in the Ministry. None of them have had any contact with any of the others. They've been effectively isolated for the entire six hours."_

"That still doesn't-"

" _The first thing Narcissa and Draco said when the first official entered the room to interrogate them was that they would speak. But they would only talk to Harry Potter."_

"Me?"

" _Narcissa and Draco could damn every single Death Eater on trial on their testimony alone. So, you are going to go in and you are going to talk to them and we're going to nail these bastards."_

Harry heard every word that Kingsley said. While he agreed with Kingsley on his desire to get the Death Eaters, there was one Death Eater that Harry was sure he was going to nail. The one who had evaded capture longer than anyone after the First War. The one that only Narcissa and Draco could give him.

Luicus Malfoy.


	10. Ten

Harry entered the Ministry of Magic in a hurry. After the horrifying experience of an intercontinental Portkey trip, Harry had gone home long enough to shower, change clothes and then Apparate into the Ministry's Atrium.

His instructions were clear: go to Kingsley's office and talk to no one.

Of course, that was easy for Kingsley to say, he wasn't the most famous wizard in the entire bloody country.

Still, Harry was able to do it, despite the number of people that shouted his name as he almost ran through the Ministry to get to the Minister's Office. Once Harry entered the room, he was met by Kingsley and two other people that he had never met.

The first Harry knew by reputation and by the distinctive red robe he wore. Gawain Robards, the new Head Auror, was a man who lived by a code: break a law, serve your time. According to others who knew him better, Robards was even more extreme than Moody when it came to convicting those that he caught.

The difference was that Robards wasn't a paranoid man at all. He was meticulous and patient. He was famous for a series of arrests in between the two wars where he watched a Dark artifact smuggling ring for nearly six years, compiling lists upon lists of damning evidence on them. Finally, when he did bring them in, he did so without any contempt or elation. He simply arrested them for the crimes they had committed.

The three men had spent every day since then in Azkaban.

The red robe that he wore contrasted with his nearly white hair and black glasses, which he peered over like a hawk. Much like Jack Williams, Robards had a single large scar that ran down the side of his face, cutting his left cheek in half from his temple to his jawline.

That scar, Harry was certain, he received while on the job, due to the lines that crept out from it, a clear indication of dark magic.

The woman that stood next to Robards was clearly a politician. Unlike Robards, who appeared out of place in his more official red robe, this woman was obviously at home with her high heels and business-cut cloak. In fact, Harry could hardly tell that it was a cloak at all. If he hadn't been paying attention, he would have thought that it was simply a long suit jacket.

Clearly, this woman paid attention to the styles of the Muggle world.

She was also considerably younger than either Kingsley or Robards, much closer in age to Harry that the others in the room.

And if Harry was being honest, she was quite attractive. She was almost as tall as Kingsley with long, black hair that hung down just past her shoulders. She was thin but did not appear weak or fragile, like she had been an athlete in a past life. Her eyes were a calming brown color that gave her an accepting aura, someone who held a concern for others.

"Harry, this is Gawain Robards." Kingsley said as he stepped forward to introduce the pair of them. Harry shook Robards' hand as Kingsley turned to his other guest.

"This is Meredith Breckinridge. As of a few weeks ago, she is the newly appointed Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"It's a pleasure, Harry." Meredith said, shaking Harry's hand in turn. Harry had expected to hear a light, dainty voice come out of her mouth. What he was someone whose voice was bright and brash, able to be heard easily over a crowd of people. This was someone who knew who she was and was able to use it to throw people off.

Harry imagined that she was attempting to do just that to him now. She wouldn't succeed, Harry would make sure of that.

"The same." Harry responded with a smile. "I know a lot of people that work for the DMLE but I'm not familiar with you."

"That's because I didn't work in the department before now." Meredith said firmly. Harry was certain that Meredith knew exactly what he had meant. Harry trusted the people that he knew and he didn't know her. Of course, having been present for the vote on her position, Harry was aware of her history but he had found that the more people thought him stupid and uninformed, the lower their expectations for him were, a fact that Harry could readily exploit.

"Really?"

"Meredith worked for the Department of Magical Transportation, acting as their Deputy Head for the last two years." Gawain explained as everyone began to take their seats.

"Magical Transportation?" Harry said in surprise before turning back to Meredith. "That's quite the step up."

"Meredith is an organizer of people, Harry." Kingsley interjected. "During her time in Magical Transportation, accidents sank by almost half and the department became the most efficient in the entire Ministry, almost entirely due to some programs that Meredith started. She is exactly what the DMLE needs"

Kingsley was clearly stumping for his new Department Head, something that Harry had hoped he would get from the Minister. As Harry had discussed with Andromeda days earlier, Harry was finding it harder and harder to trust new people these days.

Kingsley's endorsement meant the world for Meredith and Gawain in his view.

"Gawain is our Head Auror and one of the longest tenured Aurors in the Department's history. We don't need an investigator to run the Department, Harry. What I needed was someone that could bring all of these people together and get them to run efficiently."

"That's where I come in." Meredith added. "And in a way, that's why you are here."

"Pardon me?"

"When Narcissa Malfoy and Draco Malfoy both claimed that they had saved your life, we thought that it was some sort of ploy between the two of them. But, when they each independently pressured us into bringing you into the fold, we thought that there might be some truth to that matter." Meredith explained.

"Both Minister Shacklebolt and Gawain were against the idea of bringing you in to speak to them. You have quite a friend in the Minister, Harry. He told the two of us that you had rejected his request for you to join the Aurors and that he didn't want to bring you into this. But as the hours passed, and it became clear that we were getting nothing out of any of them without you, he agreed to bring you in to assist."

"What is your goal?" Harry asked Meredith. "What do you get out of me talking to the Malfoys?"

"A quicker trial for the Death Eaters that we've already arrested." Gawain answered. "The Malfoys can certainly provide valuable intelligence on the actions of the Death Eaters during the war that will condemn all of them."

"It's a win that the Ministry desperately needs." Kingsley explained. "Things are good now but we have to keep the momentum going. If it seems like it's taking too long for us to put them away, faith in the Ministry will begin to plummet again."

"What about the Malfoys?" Harry asked, this time directing his attention to Kingsley.

"What about them?" Kingsley asked.

"What will happen to them?"

"That will depend on how much they are willing to give us." Kingsley said. Harry was well aware that it wasn't a real answer. However, he hadn't been expecting one anyway.

Harry thought on everything for a moment. He could still say no to the whole thing and let the Malfoys rot. But the thought of getting Dolohov and Rookwood and the others and ensuring that they spent the rest of their lives in a cell, that was too good to pass up.

"I want to speak to Lucius Malfoy first."

"He didn't ask to speak to you." Kingsley replied, clearly confused. "Narcissa and Draco did."

"I'm aware." Harry countered. "But as much information as Narcissa and Draco can give us, Lucius is the best source of information that's still living on the Death Eaters. He likely knew where they were all hiding in between wars. He knew where the money was hidden and where the bodies are buried."

"Harry, I don't think-" Meredith started to stay before Harry interrupted her.

"I am going to guess that this isn't going to be an official Ministry interview, am I correct?"

All three of them looked at each other and then Kingsley nodded his confirmation to Harry.

"So, we're doing this my way. No one knows any of the Malfoys better than I know Draco."

"Yes, Harry, but we all know Lucius better than you." Gawain fired back. "I don't think you understand how dangerous he can be. His tongue is as vile a weapon as his wand."

"I'm well versed in the ways that a Malfoy can talk his way out of things, Gawain." Harry replied dismissively. "After all, he somehow managed to work his way out of an Azkaban trip after the first war despite having been one of Voldemort's biggest supporters and a general supporter of the Dark Arts since his birth."

"Harry, he claimed-"

"I know what he claimed, Kingsley." Harry snapped. "And if the Ministry then was stupid enough to believe it, that's not my fault. I know exactly what Lucius Malfoy is. He is a self-serving coward who will do anything to protect himself and then his family in that order. Don't you dare think to lecture me on what I do and do not know about the Malfoys, Auror Robards."

Harry could tell that Gawain had not expected to be talked down to by a seventeen year old that day. But before Gawain could reply, Kingsley cut him off.

"Fine, Harry. We do this your way. Use this office to talk to them."

"Your office?" Harry asked.

"There's a secret entrance through the shelves over there." Kingsley said, indicating a set of bookshelves on the back wall. "We can lead the Malfoys in here one at a time without anyone seeing them."

"I assume that you have ways to watch this room while you are not present."

"I do." Kingsley responded coyly. "By giving you this room, it allows me to watch what you are doing while also letting you wield the power that this room exudes. Being left alone in the Minister's office is not something most people get to do, Harry, use it but do not abuse it."

"No, sir." Harry responded earnestly. It was clear from the looks on Meredith and Gawain's faces that they did not necessarily agree with Kingsley's idea to trust Harry to do things his way. But Kingsley knew Harry. He knew that Harry would never become some sort of Ministry puppet and he knew that Harry wouldn't agree to do things their way if Harry thought he had a better one.

And he did.

"Good. We'll clear out of the room. Lucius should be here in a few minutes." Kingsley said as he stood from his desk. "You'll only get today to do this, Harry. After that, we'll have to report their capture and process them through regular channels. Make it count."

"I understand and I will. Thank you, Kingsley." Harry replied.

Kingsley led Meredith and Gawain out of the room. It took Harry a few moments to truly soak up the fact that he had been left alone in what was likely the most powerful room in the country. In the past, it may have been Dumbledore's office but with his death and McGonagall's placement at the head of the school, she was less likely to wield her position for political gains.

Less than a minute after the front door had opened, the book shelf on the far side of the room cracked open and Lucius Malfoy was led into the room, an Auror on either side.

He looked terrible. Much like he had looked at the Battle of Hogwarts, his hair was wild and thick with knots. It looked as if he hadn't bathed in a week and he smelled as if it had been longer. Dirt covered his fingernails and his teeth, once pearly white, were now already starting to yellow.

Harry had to admit that somewhere, not that deep down, he enjoyed seeing Lucius like this. It was the punishment he deserved. But then Harry realized that the punishment he deserved was actually a cell in Azkaban.

It was a punishment that Harry would see come to pass, come hell or high water.

"Remove his shackles and leave us." Harry ordered the Aurors. Lucius had been brought in with heavy metal chains around his wrists and ankles, which the Aurors quickly removed. Each of them glanced at the other, not certain if they should listen to Harry's request. However, they each came to the same realization: Harry Potter was likely not a person to ignore when he was the one standing alone in the Minister's office.

Once the Aurors were gone, Harry invited Lucius to sit on the couch against the wall while Harry sat in a plush armchair just across from him. Only a few feet and small table separated the two of them.

"You've seen better days, Lucius." Harry commented.

"Come to gloat, have you?" Lucius snapped, his eyes wild and furious. "You get to stand on your hill and look down on me now. Is that what you are here to do?"

"No, I'm here to get you to beg for the lives of your family."

Clearly, Lucius had not expected that.

"Sometime within the last few hours, both your wife and your son made separate claims that they saved my life. Obviously, they did this to curry favor with the Ministry. It's a good look, having saved The Man Who Killed Voldemort."

Harry was pleased to see Lucius shutter at the mention of Riddle's moniker.

"But they both stood firmly in their belief that they had saved my life. So, they said that the only person they would talk to was me. Here I am."

"Yet you are talking to me."

"Yes, I am." Harry said evenly, his voice not rising despite the clear disrespect in the tone of Lucius' voice. "I'm here because we both know that they are telling the truth. But it won't matter. It won't matter because they are still going to end up in Azkaban for helping you."

"Malfoys don't go to prison."

"Except when they're caught in the Ministry of Magic, helping a Dark Lord, right?"

"You got lucky, Potter." Lucius scoffed. "Every single time you faced the Dark Lord, it was luck."

"No, it was pride." Harry countered. "It was pride and arrogance that got Voldemort killed and it's the same thing that's going to doom your family."

"And you know nothing of arrogance?" Lucius growled. "You sit in the Minister's office and think it gives you power and yet think to lecture me on arrogance?"

"I'm not lecturing you. I am explaining your situation. As we speak, The DMLE is prepping the three of you to be processed for trial. You will all be tried as Death Eaters and you will sentenced to the harshest extent of the law: a lifetime of solitude in Azkaban."

"And you are here to offer me some kind of deal? Why?"

"I'm not offering _you_ a deal, Lucius." Harry laughed. "There's no way that you are getting out of this without spending the rest of your life in jail. But you could save your family."

Harry knew that he was walking a tightrope. If Lucius caved, then he would have to convince Kingsley to honor their arrangement. To be honest, it wasn't even the arrangement that Harry wanted. If Lucius folded, he would get to go to jail but he would be treated as a hero, the man who sacrificed himself to save his family.

But Lucius Malfoy had never sacrificed anything for anyone.

"How?" Lucius asked.

"Give up every single person who worked for the Death Eaters. Give up every person who took money from or gave money to the Death Eaters. You were the heart of Voldemort's operation, Lucius. You know it and I know it. To be honest, the whole country knows it but you were too good at your job for us to discover just how you did it. You left no evidence for us to follow. Your name appears on almost no documents and it seems as if your very presence at the Ministry was almost non-existent. Yet, according to everyone I know, you were almost always here."

Harry leaned forward, his face now only inches from Lucius'

"This offer will last for the next thirty seconds: give up everything and I will do my best to see your wife and child go free. Deny me and they take the fall with you."

In that moment, Lucius Malfoy became everything that Harry always thought him to be. Harry had expected him to at least consider the offer.

"No."

"What?" Harry responded in shock.

"You don't have anything on me, Potter. You have no evidence of me committing a crime other than associating with The Dark Lord. We both know that they can't throw me in a cell forever just for that. So, no, Potter, I will not take you up on your incredibly pathetic offer. I have the resources to defend myself and without a doubt, I will be out of prison within a year, if I go at all."

Harry allowed Lucius to have his moment. Then, patiently, Harry leaned back in his chair and laughed.

"Your resources were seized by the Ministry." Harry said through his final chuckles. "Until you are declared innocent, the Ministry, with the help of the goblins of Gringotts who you apparently pissed off royally, is holding onto them. If you spend even one day in Azkaban, the Ministry will take possession of all of them."

"What's your point?" Lucius drawled.

"Does that change your mind?"

"No." Lucius snapped. "You'll never be able to prove any of it."

"And if you're wrong?"

"I'm not."

He could see there was no getting through to him. Harry stood, buttoned the jacket of his suit and knocked on the shelf so that the Aurors would know he was finished with Lucius.

"I've already started thinking about what I'll do with Malfoy Manor once I buy it. With the combined assets of the Potter and Black estates, I'm one of the wealthiest people in the country. Hell, I may be the wealthiest. I'm not really sure because wizards don't really keep track of that sort of thing, which is strange for as austentatious we can be sometimes. Who knows? Maybe I'll turn it into a Muggle orphanage to honor your dearly deceased Dark Lord."

Just as the door opened and the Aurors entered the room, Lucius launched himself in Harry's direction. He got about halfway there before one of the Aurors Stunned the eldest Malfoy. The Aurors each grabbed Lucius under the arm, dragging him towards the door.

"I would like to speak to Narcissa Malfoy next." Harry said, speaking to no one but knowing that someone was listening.

Again, only seconds later, the requested party entered the room. Like her husband, Narcissa had seen better days. But unlike Lucius, who had entered the room with the same smug attitude that he always wore, Narcissa showed something rarely seen on the face of a Malfoy: fear

"Have a seat, Narcissa." Harry said calmly, pointing at the same seat that her husband had just vacated.

"Thank you." Narcissa whispered as she sat. Almost immediately, her eyes dropped to the floor, avoiding looking at Harry altogether. This was clearly a woman who had been beaten down over the last few years. Gone was the confident woman that Harry had first met at Madam Malkin's. That day, she had mercilessly taunted Harry about the recent death of his godfather.

Today, she avoided eye contact with him and didn't dare say a word to him. While Harry was pleased with the fact that they had beaten Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts, he felt a tinge of pity for Narcissa Malfoy.

"I only have one question for you, Narcissa: what do you want?"

"I beg your pardon?" Narcissa said, her eyes flashing up to him.

"You say you saved my life." Harry answered. "What do you think that gets you?"

"It gets me whatever I want." Narcissa replied and for a moment, Harry saw the old Narcissa Malfoy flash to life.

Until Harry laughed at her, that is. Then, Harry saw a moment of confusion and then a sudden realization.

"You don't get anything unless someone gives it to you now, Narcissa. No matter how things play out, your family name will be poison for the rest of your life and likely, the rest of your son's."

"You feel no gratitude for the woman who saved your life? The Dark Lord would have killed you had he known that you lived!"

"He would have tried." Harry countered. "There were things about that day that you don't know, Narcissa. Things that made your valiant decision to spare me a bit useless."

Clearly, this was not how Narcissa expected things to go. But things were different now. She wasn't Narcissa Malfoy, wife of the distinguished Lucius Malfoy any longer.

Now, she was Narcissa Malfoy, wife and mother of Death Eaters and traitor in her own right. Her name meant nothing. Her desires and her wishes meant nothing. If not for Harry, it was almost a certainty that the entire Malfoy family would spent the rest of their lives in separate cells.

They all certainly deserved jail time but none more so than Lucius. Others would paint them all with the same brush in the name of vengeance.

Harry didn't believe that was how justice worked.

"So why are you here then, Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked.

"Because I want something from you and your son."

"What is that?"

"Testimony against your husband."

"You want what?"

"I want your husband in the deepest darkest hole that we can come up with." Harry said, a menacing gravel suddenly forming in his voice. "Your husband is the reason that Voldemort was able to take control as easily as he was. Without Lucius' connections, Voldemort isn't able to take over the Ministry in a single day. That's going to be your husband's lasting legacy and I want to see him burn for that."

Narcissa clearly had not been expecting that. As Harry continued to speak, he saw that she understood just how much Harry hated Lucius.

"Why don't you just have him killed?" Narcissa asked. "Surely, with your influence, you could make that happen."

"Because that's too easy for him. I want him to live the rest of knowing that we will erase his legacy. The only thing the world will remember him for is being a criminal and a terrorist."

"Even if I wanted to help you, why would I? Lucius is the father of my son. Even if I hated what he's done to us, why would I give him up for you?"

"Because if you don't, then I will make sure that all three of you pay for his crimes." Harry countered. "I'm certain that the Ministry is already planning your trial. You and your husband and your _son_ will go to Azkaban for a very long time. So, it's your choice, Narcissa. You can condemn you and your son for crimes that you didn't choose or you can give me your husband."

"Crimes I didn't choose?"

"I know that your marriage to Lucius was arranged." Harry explained. "I'm sure that you loved Lucius but you didn't choose to marry a Death Eater and your son didn't choose to have one for a father."

Narcissa opened her mouth to spoke before changing her mind. She sat in silence for a few moments before nodding her head slightly.

"What would I have to do?"

"You have to convince your son." Harry said as he leaned forward. "Draco was an official Death Eater, Narcissa. Without his testimony to corroborate yours, Lucius may walk free."

The implication was clear. If they didn't nail Lucius to the wall, he would eventually get out and there was no telling what he would do if given the opportunity to retaliate against anyone who condemned him.

"If I don't have both of you, then I can't go to the Minister with this." Harry added. "If Draco declines, you'll go on trial with him and Lucius. Narcissa, I don't have to explain to you what will happen then. They were _both_ Death Eaters and one of them directly orchestrated Albus Dumbledore's death."

Narcissa nodded. "Will you be able to get us out of time in Azkaban?"

"I don't know." Harry admitted. "But I imagine if your testimony leads to a life sentence for Lucius, we may be able to work out some sort of long term house arrest sentence."

"Can you guarantee that?"

"No." Harry replied. "I can't guarantee anything. But I will try. No one else is going to give you that chance."

"OK." Narcissa breathed softly. "OK. I'll talk to him."

Harry nodded and then stood, moving to the shelf where he knocked for a third time. When the door opened, Harry told the Auror on the other side of the door that he needed to speak to the third Malfoy.

Less than a minute later, after Harry had retaken his seat across from Narcissa, Draco was escorted in by two Aurors. Harry would have liked to say that he didn't enjoy the confusion on Malfoy's face.

If he had said that, Harry would have been lying.

"Mother, what the hell is going on?"

"Have a seat, son." Narcissa said, patting the seat next to her gently.

"I will have a seat when you tell me what you're doing talking to him."

"She's saving your ass, you ungrateful little shit." Harry barked. "Sit down."

"Who is going to make me?"

For years, this had been the way things had gone between Harry and Malfoy. Harry was The Boy Who Lived, untouchable within the walls of Hogwarts. Malfoy was the son of the most powerful man in the country, untouchable by anyone.

But the dynamic had changed, whether Malfoy had realized it or not.

Now, Lucius Malfoy was behind bars, his power stripped from him. Harry was not just the Boy Who Lived either. Now, he was the Man Who Won. Whether or not Harry wanted the responsibility, he was likely the most influential person in the entire country.

And Draco Malfoy was not.

Harry could have reacted to Draco's arrogance in a number of ways. He could have cursed him. He could have embarrassed him.

Instead, Harry simply made him aware of the change in status quo.

"Narcissa, tell your son to sit."

Instantly, Narcissa followed the instruction. "Draco, please have a seat. Please."

That last word was uttered with a kind of desperation that Draco recognized but not one that he ever expected to hear from his mother and especially not when at the mercy of Harry Potter.

Clearly confused about what exactly was going on, Draco relented and took his seat.

"Thank you, Draco." Narcissa said as he sat.

"Yes, thank you." Harry added. "Now, we're going to have a conversation."

"Mother, why are we listening to this idiot?"

This time, Harry did not take the high road.

"Malfoy, you really can't be this stupid, can you?" Harry roared. "You are a Death Eater. You have the mark on your arm. I've seen it. That means that if you no one goes out of their way to help you, and they won't because you've been a worthless piece of garbage your entire life, you will spent the rest of your life in Azkaban. If you stop running your mouth for only a few seconds, you'll get hear the only opportunity you may have to prevent that."

Draco opened his mouth to counter but he was stopped by a gentle hand on his arm. Instead, Draco turned to see Narcissa looking at him in resignation, shaking her head.

"Mother?" Draco said, suddenly sounding like he was back in his first year.

"Listen to what he has to say, Draco."

"Listen to your mother, Malfoy." Harry added. "If you don't, you will die in a cell."

Draco looked between Harry and Narcissa, looking for one of them to break. When they didn't and when he realized that they had, in fact, lost, he sank back into the couch, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"You were expecting your father to save you."

"I was." Draco admitted. "He always has."

"I think you should know that he was given the opportunity to do so."

"Excuse me?" Narcissa said in shock, clearly surprised by this new information.

"Before I spoke with you, Narcissa, I spoke with your husband. I gave him the opportunity to get you out of jail entirely. With Lucius' testimony, every single Death Eater would go to jail for the rest of their lives. He was given the opportunity to sacrifice himself for the two of you. I offered him a deal: he goes to Azkaban and the two of you walk free."

"What did he say?" Narcissa asked. There was no doubt in her voice: she was terrified what the answer would be because she knew her husband.

"He declined before he even really thought about it. He said that he had the resources to defend himself and even if he went to prison, he would likely be out in a year."

The news shocked the pair of them. Neither cried, neither shouted in anger. They simply sat, stunned at their news that Lucius could have saved them and chose not to do so.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him. Your resources, your gold, home, everything that belonged to you is being held by the Ministry until after your trial. Even after I informed him of that, he didn't back down. He would rather all three of you rot in jail than just him."

Harry turned to Draco, who looked stunned by this revelation.

"Draco, I have already offered a deal to your mother. If the two of you testify against your father, I will do everything I can to make sure that you are able to avoid Azkaban."

"Why would you do that?" Draco asked, clearly accusing Harry of something. Exactly what, Harry wasn't certain.

"There's a few reasons." Harry admitted. "As I already told your mother, your father was the reason the Ministry was so easily taken over. He spent years weakening it, giving former Death Eaters good jobs or paying off others to look the other way."

"There's also the part your father played in the death of my godfather." Harry added. "If not for your father, if not for Voldemort, Sirius might still live. Bellatrix may be dead but someone will pay for that death."

"But none of those are the most important reasons." Harry admitted. "You don't choose your parents. Now, Draco, don't get me wrong: I hate you. I want nothing more than to see you spend every day for the rest of your life in jail."

"Then why don't you just let me?"

"Because you are the product of your environment, just like my cousin. Your father was a Death Eater and your mother was too afraid of her husband to stop him from turning you into one. You also each went out of your way to save my life. I know you recognized me at your home, Draco, and you chose not to confirm it. You gave me the opportunity to get away."

"So, I'm giving you that same opportunity. I'm giving you a second chance. You'll never regain the stature that you had before. But you won't be in jail and you'll be given the opportunity to make something of yourself that has nothing to do with Dark magic."

Draco looked at his mother. It was obvious that he wanted her to tell Harry to shove it. But she didn't. All she did was nod sadly at her son. Harry felt that small amount of pity rush up again as he watched a mother tell her son to betray his father. Then, Harry remembered that this family was responsible for the death of dozens of people and that feeling disappeared entirely.

Finally, Draco gave in, his head collapsing into his hands in front of him.

"What do we do?"

"I'm going to call Gawain Robards in here. You're going to tell him every single thing that you remember Lucius doing. You are going to include every moment where you did something illegal. You will tell him everything. When that's done, you'll eventually have to testify against Lucius."

"What will happen to us until then?" Narcissa asked.

"I'm not certain. I'll talk to the Minister after I'm done talking to you." Harry said. "Now, Narcissa, you are free to go. I would like to talk to your son for a moment before he goes back to his cell."

Again, Harry brought the Aurors in and Narcissa left the room. Harry could tell that she did not want to leave her son alone with Harry. But they both knew that she was in no position to debate Harry at the moment.

Once she was gone, Harry turned back to Draco.

"I'm going to make this brief. You are responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore. Everyone will want you to spend the rest of your life in jail for that. I'm giving you a chance. You ruin it and I will not hesitate to kill you."

Before Draco had a chance to respond, Harry knocked on the door once more and had Draco removed from the room. Once both of the Malfoys were gone, Kingsley entered the room from the normal door.

"That was interesting." Kingsley said as he took a seat behind his desk. "They weren't lying."

"They weren't." Harry admitted as he sat across from the Minister. In that moment, Harry was suddenly exhausted.

"How much of your story have you left out, Harry?" Kingsley asked.

"Most of it."

"That's a problem." Kingsley sighed. "In order for the Malfoys to testify and in order for us to come up with some kind of deal for them, you are going to have to testify as well."

"I was already called to testify."

"Yes but you'll have to testify before the Wizengamot." Kingsley replied. "They need to know your story. Now, I can arrange to have it largely redacted due to security interests but the members of the Wizengamot are going to have to know your story."

"I know."

"You are willing to do that to get Narcissa and Draco Malfoy out of jail?"

"I'm willing to do that because I know I was going to have to do that anyway. If it means keeping people from a fate that they don't deserve, so be it."

"Speaking of the Malfoys, what kind of deal were you thinking for them?"

"I didn't think I would get a say in that."

"You don't." Kingsley said with a chuckle. "But you clearly had an agenda when you came in here today. You came after Lucius Malfoy hard. So, what do they get for giving up their family?"

"House arrest, first and foremost. Also, I think an agreement that they are not able to provide money or resources to anyone working for the Ministry. You know people won't like that we're giving them a deal."

"You mean Gawain and Meredith."

"I do."

"They'll survive." Kingsley replied. "I'm fine with that deal. We'll get the Wizengamot to charge Narcissa and Draco with a couple of crimes and fine them instead of throwing them in jail. It will not be a small amount of money but they'll be fine."

Harry smirked at the thought of Draco having to deal with being slightly less wealthy.

"You promise this deal goes through?"

"It's a done deal, Harry. I'll write it up myself. Gawain and Meredith won't be happy but they want Lucius Malfoy just about as bad as you do so they'll learn to live with it."

"No one wants Lucius Malfoy as bad as I do."

"That's unfortunately true."

Harry went home that night and ignored a curious Ginny as he climbed the stairs before he collapsed on his bed. Harry never imagined that he would have been able to ensure that Lucius Malfoy would spend the rest of his life in jail. With that taken care of, Harry felt like he could finally move on from Sirius and Dumbledore's deaths.

Now, if he could only decide what he was doing with his life.


	11. Eleven

When Harry awoke the next morning, he found a note on the table next to his bed. Opening it, he saw that it had been sent from the Ministry of Magic but was clearly from Hermione herself. The brief letter explained that Hermione and George would be returning to London with Hermione's parents later that day, meaning it would really be another couple of days before they were back in London proper.

Once that was done, George was set to return to his London flat while Hermione decided to remain with her parents for at least a day or two.

Harry could absolutely understand that Hermione wouldn't want to leave her parents so soon after bringing them back home. Using Pig, which Ginny had brought with her from the Burrow, Harry sent a reply that would be waiting at Hermione's parents' home when they arrived, letting her know that he had received her letter and if she need anything, simply to let him know.

With Hermione absent from Grimmauld Place, that left just Harry and Ginny. For most former couples, especially one with as long and complicated a history as Harry and Ginny, this would have been awkward.

But it simply wasn't. Ever since their midnight encounter, there had been almost no tension between them at all. It was almost as if that evening had been a final farewell to their relationship.

They were certainly still close friends. In fact, Harry couldn't remember a time that he had been closer to Ginny. With the confines of Grimmauld Place being more compact than The Burrow's sprawl, there were only a certain number of places that you could go to avoid others despite the massive size of the home. Still, neither Harry or Ginny felt the need to do so. During the nearly five day span that Hermione was gone, they shared most of their meals together, talking avidly about the upcoming Quidditch season. They had each developed a wizarding chess set that had come to respect some of the moves they made, making it harder for the pieces to argue with them (although in true Weasley fashion, Ginny still typically thrashed Harry).

Harry realized that this was the exact relationship that he had with Ginny at Hogwarts for years but without any of the romantic tension that came with it. They had tried to make a relationship work but life had a different plan for the time being and they were both content in that knowledge. Simply put, Harry was happier with Ginny as a friend than a partner.

Nearly five days after Harry returned from Australia, Hermione returned home to Grimmauld Place.

Except she did not come home alone. As she walked through the front door, Harry was surprised to see Ron enter with her. In just the few days since Harry had seen him, Ron looked as if he had changed immensely. The bags under his eyes had grown and his hair was wild and unkempt. A ginger beard grew weakly on his face.

Overall, Ron looked like the average homeless person in London. But it was clear that Ron was there for a reason. When he entered Grimmauld Place, Ron looked at no one except Harry.

"We've already talked." Hermione said softly.

"Can we have the room?" Ron said to Hermione. Ginny looked at Harry nervously. The way their relationship had developed, it was clear that Ginny felt more concern for Harry than she did for Ron in this particular moment although given the state of Ron's appearance, she was probably onto something.

Still, Harry nodded his agreement and motioned for Hermione and Ginny to leave them. Once they were gone, Harry invited Ron to sit across from him in the dining room where they had shared so many meals before.

Things were different now. Harry could sense it. But then he realized that things had been different for awhile now.

 _Your parents are dead. You have no family._

This conversation was months in the making. When Ron returned from his self-imposed exile, Harry had been too wrapped up in the events surrounding his return to talk about his departure. After that, there didn't seem to be a good time. Eventually, it was something that simply got pushed to the side.

But in fact, it hadn't been pushed aside. It had simply been buried. It was still there, needling at both of them.

"I'm a bit of prat sometimes." Ron finally said, filling the awkward silence that had lingered between the two of them.

"Yes, you are." Harry replied, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed. He was no longer bothering to hide his frustration with Ron. Hiding wouldn't serve anyone anymore. It was possible that when this conversation was over, they wouldn't be friends any longer. Harry didn't want that but he was tired of avoiding things with Ron. At least now, everything would be out in the open.

"Go easy." Ron pleaded. "I'm trying here."

"Why should I go easy, Ron?" Harry scoffed. "You were my first friend in the whole world. You know that, right? I didn't have any siblings, any family that loved me."

"You don't have to remind me. I saw the bars on your window."

"But you didn't live it." Harry countered, rocking forward and stabbing at the table with his finger before putting that same finger right in Ron's face. "You didn't have to deal with the torture of knowing that you were only going to get one meal a day or that you were going to spend hours locked in a closet. You were never made to feel like less than a person by the only family you've ever known."

"Do you know how wonderful it was? To find a friend in the world? Even if it had been only you, I would have been happy, knowing that there was **one person** out there who cared whether I lived or died."

"What does this have to do with what I said about you and Hermione?" Ron asked in confusion.

"You don't trust me." Harry said simply.

"I followed you for a year in the woods, Harry. I went with you searching for the Horcruxes!"

"And you left."

Silence. Harry could see the rage bubbling up inside Ron. That's when Harry realized that Ron had no idea that Harry's anger stretched back that far. In Ron's mind, he had returned and that made up for everything. In his mind, the only thing he had to apologize for was his words to Harry about sleeping with Hermione.

"I came back." Ron whispered, his teeth never truly separating.

"That doesn't change the fact that you left." Harry said evenly. "You abandoned us. You abandoned _her._ "

"And I said I was sorry."

"You think that makes it okay?" Harry said, nearly laughing to keep from launching himself at Ron. "You think saying you're sorry makes everything okay? I said that I was going alone to find the Horcruxes. You and Hermione both said "not a chance." You took that leap together. Ron, you took that leap _because_ of her."

It took a moment for Ron to completely understand what Harry's words meant. But when Harry's accusation became clear, Ron's rage finally surfaced.

"You think I wouldn't have gone if not for her?" Ron barked, his teeth still grinding together as he spoke.

"I think that she made your choice for you." Harry countered flippantly. "I think if she had decided to stick around, you would have stayed with her."

"How can you say that after everything we've been through?"

"Because you left!" Harry shouted, finally unable to contain his frustration. He grabbed the coffee mug that was on the table in front of him and launched it across the room, smashing it against the wall. Harry stood, towering over Ron, his breathing ragged and shallow. The look in Ron's eyes was one that Harry had never seen, at least not when looking at himself: fear.

Still, the anger that fueled Harry didn't let up and Harry pushed forward.

"You want to know why things would never work with her, Ron? Because you _**abandoned**_ her. You think that it hurt me? Can you even imagine what you did to her?"

Ron didn't answer. Instead, he simply sat and stared at Harry in shock.

"I don't have to imagine, Ron, because I was still there." Harry said, his voice cold. Over the years, Harry had cultivated an ability to use his words to inspire. Never before had Harry truly desired to use that same ability to cause pain.

Not until now.

He knew what he was doing to Ron. He knew that with every additional word, his cut deeper into the soul of his friend but for the first time, Harry found that he didn't care.

"I was there, Ron." Harry repeated. "I was there when she cried herself to sleep. Not once. Not twice but dozens of times. I was there when she reacted to the twitch of every leaf and the rustle of every blade of grass as if it were you returning. I was there to see the look of despair and disappointment on her face when it wasn't you."

"This isn't the first time that you abandoned me either." Harry added.

"Is this about the Goblet of Fire again?" Ron said, rolling his eyes in frustration. "I already said I was sorry for being stupid about that."

"I don't care that you apologized. I care that you believed that I would do it in the first place. But you know what hurt the most? I told you, as my best friend, that I did not put my name into the Goblet, and you _still didn't believe me."_ Harry said, punching each word as he finished.

Harry stared at Ron, waiting for him to say something. Instead, Ron simply looked dumbly at the floor.

"The Goblet of Fire, the tent, my relationship with Hermione: you didn't trust me with any of them. And you didn't trust _her_ which is the most insane part."

"I know."

It wasn't the first time that Ron had admitted guilt in any of these matters. But, judging by the look on Ron's face, it was the first time that he appeared to truly gauge just how much damage his insecurities had caused. For years, Harry had been Ron's best friend and now they sat on opposite sides of the table, uncertain of how much longer that would last.

"Being my friend isn't easy. _I_ made life hard for you, Ron." Harry admitted. "You went out of your way to befriend Harry. Not Harry Potter, not The Boy Who Lived. Just Harry. If you had known what you were getting yourself into when you were eleven, I doubt you would have followed through."

"You're wrong." Ron whispered softly, fighting back tears. When Ron spoke next, it was clear that he was choosing his words carefully with such a delicate nature that Harry had a hard time recognizing it as Ron. His voice, even as he fought through the tears that threatened to overwhelm him, was clear and exact.

He sounded like Hermione.

"I-I talked to George. He told me what he said to you that night at Fred's funeral. He was right and I-I was wrong. In the tent, I told you that you didn't have a family. I was wrong. My family is yours, Harry, and has been your family for years. My family loves you, Harry. _I_ love you."

"I'm a jealous person. We both know that. When I was younger, there were times that I was jealous of just how much my family loved you. At first, I thought they loved you because of the Dursleys. They knew what kind of monsters they were and how terrible they were to you. I thought Mum and Dad were just making up for it. But, I was wrong. They loved you because you are my **brother,** just like Bill and Charlie and...Fred and George are my brothers."

"I don't have any excuse for The Goblet of Fire, Harry. You are right. I didn't trust you. I didn't trust you because I was tired of feeling like a third wheel and because I was stupid and fourteen years old. Hermione was a perfect student. The Ministry even gave her a Time Turner the year before. You...well, you were Harry Potter. I was just Ron. I was an idiot for ever believing that you could put your name in that Goblet."

"I would like to say that the Horcrux was the reason that I left but we both know that wasn't true. Again, I felt…..useless compared to you two. You had all of this insight on Riddle and Hermione was...she was just being Hermione. I was weak and The Horcrux knew that. It would speak to me, like it did when we destroyed it."

This was news to Harry. While wearing the Horcrux certainly made Harry feel worse, he had never literally heard it speak to him. Harry could see where that would have been unnerving to say the least.

"It would tell me all these horrible things about what you and Hermione were doing behind my back."

"You know that was just you, right?" Harry asked. "It was just echoing the things you were already thinking."

"I know." Ron admitted. "I was weak and I paid for that. I know that things may never be the same between us. I know that I left you and Hermione."

"What about what you said about Hermione and me?"

"I said I was weak, Harry." Ron echoed sadly. "Fred's death...messed me up more than I thought. It brought back all of those old feelings of uselessness. I was standing right there when he died. If I had been ten feet closer, maybe I could have saved him."

"Or you could have died." Harry countered.

"I know. I know that it's stupid to fight over this kind of thing."

"You think that I don't do that in my head?" Harry asked. "If I had been two steps over, I could have blocked Bellatrix's spell that killed Sirius. If I hadn't allowed Dumbledore to hex me, I could have saved him. There are so many "what if's" in our lives, Ron. But I learned a long time ago that dwelling on those didn't serve anyone."

"I'm learning." Ron chuckled. "But not fast enough. I felt useless and helpless and then Hermione didn't want me to go with her and all of those old thoughts that I had about the two of you popped back into my head and I lashed out. I know that you would never treat her like that, Harry, and I know that she would never let you but….I haven't been thinking rationally much since Fred died."

"I understand the feeling." Harry replied, truly understanding where Ron was coming from.

"I need to feel that kind of control again." Ron said firmly. "Kingsley asked me to join the Aurors and I agreed."

"Why?"

"I need to get my life back in order. I know that I won't be able to move forward unless I start doing something with my life. Ginny left home. Bill and Fleur were able to go back to their life. Same with Charlie and even George. But it was a bit like you were saying, Harry. I didn't have any plan for what we would do after we defeated Voldemort. I didn't have a plan for moving forward."

"And now you do." Harry said, surprised at the maturity he was hearing from Ron.

"I still grieve for Fred. But at least this will allow me to take that grief and turn it into something positive."

Harry had a sudden memory of Ron sitting on the grass by the Quidditch field. He had looked like a child again in that moment. Now, Ron, finally and fully at rock bottom, looked heart-broken and grief-stricken.

And yet, he was moving forward. He had chosen a path for himself. Despite the anger that Harry still felt for Ron, he couldn't help but be a bit proud for his oldest friend. Ron had never taken anything too seriously and he doubted that would change much but the fact remained that Ron had seen the worst of himself and was doing what he could to pick up the pieces and move on.

It was a lesson that Harry could learn from.

"I'm glad that you have that." Harry answered earnestly.

"So what do we do now?"

"We've been friends for too long to simply throw it all away." Harry said. "But I can't forget that lack of trust."

"So there's no starting over?"

"Ron, we've been friends since we were eleven. No, we can't start over...but we can rebuild. I hope so anyway."

Ron stood, a determined look in his eyes as he did so.

"I've not always been a good friend." Ron said.

"No one is." Harry said as they shared a short laugh.

"Well, I'll be better." Ron replied firmly. "Listen, Percy and I move into our apartment tomorrow. I would appreciate it if you could come help."

"Ron, you have the ability to do magic. What could you possibly need help with?"

"Well, first, we saw how long it took us to clean up my room so I imagine it won't be quite as easy as we imagine." Ron chuckled. "Plus, Seamus sent me a message yesterday. He wants to know if we want to go get some drinks in London with the rest of the Gryffindors from our year. The guys, that is."

"A Gryffindor Guys night in London?" Harry replied. "This seems like it could be a terrible idea."

"Oh, it probably is." Ron answered. "But I can't wait to try and get Neville to talk to some Muggle girls."

"Why didn't they ask me?" Harry asked.

"No one other than Hermione and Ginny has really seen you in a couple weeks." Ron replied. "I know I'm partially at fault for that but I think they were giving you the opportunity to say no."

"Nah, I'm in." Harry assured him. "I can't wait."

With that in mind, Harry showed up at The Burrow for the first time in awhile the next morning, ready to help Ron move. Hermione, while she was ready to live at Grimmauld Place again, still was spending most of her days with her parents. Ron, in what Harry hoped was a trend, was very understanding and told her not to worry about helping out. Part of it was that Ron was trying harder to be a good friend. Part of the reason for Ron's behavior was likely that he wanted the opportunity to spend some time beginning to repair his relationship with Harry. His relationship with Hermione, while contentious after the Battle of Hogwarts, was somehow nowhere near as damaged as his relationship with Harry.

Of course, Ron hadn't insinuated that Hermione invited Harry to Australia simply to bed him in the same way that he had to Harry, so in a way, it made sense that things were a bit rougher with Harry than Hermione.

Harry had expected the process to be quick and simple. Somehow, Ron made it infinitely more complicated than it should have been. If Hermione had been there, she likely would have fainted or murdered Ron based on the sheer lack of organization that Ron showed.

There was no rhyme or reason to his packing. He had simply unearthed a collection of old cardboard boxes and started bewitching objects to fly into them. Nevermind the fact that some of it was fragile or that it was far too large for the box. In that moment, Harry wished he had learned how to cast an Undetectable Extension Charm. It would have made life much simpler.

However, Harry did learn that Ron had charmed all of his belongings so that they wouldn't break, which did make Harry feel a little better about simply throwing everything in boxes. Still, even with all the protections that Ron had taken, it still took them nearly three hours to get everything into boxes due to Ron's terrible sense of spatial reasoning. Harry nearly quit the third time he tried to fit an entire bookshelf into a box about the size of a steamer trunk.

Finally, well after noon, they were done and able to start Apparating Ron's things to his new apartment. It was a small loft only a few blocks from the hidden entrance to the Ministry of Magic, an ideal location for both Ron and Percy. The best feature was the wall that faced the street was entirely made of glass. Percy had already charmed the glass so that any signs of magic were obfuscated from the outside.

Inside, the living room had a bedroom and kitchen attached to either side of it with a loft above it where a small reading area and second bedroom were located. It didn't take much to guess that Ron would be sleeping downstairs, far away from the reading area that Percy would be taking advantage of.

Once Harry was inside the bedroom, he could see why Ron would want to move in. This room was likely three times the size of Ron's old room in the Burrow. No longer would he be able to touch both sides of the room at the same time. Now, it would take a short run to go from one wall to the other.

With Harry's help, it only took two hours to get Ron largely unpacked. A few boxes remained in the corner of the room, things that Ron wasn't sure if he was going to keep or return to the Burrow. With that finished, Harry and Ron returned to The Burrow for lunch. Mrs. Weasley had made the both of them promise that they would come back so that they could talk to Harry, who they hadn't seen since he left after Ron's tantrum.

Sure enough, when they arrived, Molly Weasley had a spread for kings ready for the two of them. In fact, there was so much food that Harry sent a message to both Ginny and George, telling them to come to The Burrow and help eat all of the food that Molly had prepared. Both showed up within minutes, ready to consume a traditional home cooked meal for the first time in weeks.

Despite the circumstances of the past month, lunch was a relatively normal affair. George told a few stories about what life was like at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Harry watched George closely. He seemed to be doing better but there just was something about him that wasn't quite all there. It was obvious to anyone in the room what the issues at WWW were related to but George refused to say it aloud. Fred's presence, or lack thereof, floated around every issue that he mentioned but was never once mentioned by name.

It was moments like this when Harry realized just how fundamentally things had been changed by the war. Life, for the most part, had returned to some resembling normalcy. Things were different certainly but that was always going to be the case. Winning the war meant that Harry went from being folklore hero to actual wizarding hero. It meant a list of different responsibilities and it meant the pressure of living up to the first seventeen years of his life for the remainder of it.

But for people like George, someone who had lost someone so fundamental in his life, things were "normal" again and yet, there would always be something off. George was no longer hiding from the world. He wasn't sulking in a corner and fighting his mental battles in isolation. George was a present and persistent part of the world.

Yet, broken he remained. In a way, that would be life for everyone until their own death. There was no magic that could bring back their loved ones. No magic that would bring back a sense of comfort or ease. Everyone had been touched by war, chaos and despair and despite the best efforts of everyone, it would remain that way for the rest of their lives.

Still, Harry was encouraged to see George trying to return to his life. It would never be the same and Harry could see the struggle as George fought to acknowledge that. However hard that was for him, he still persisted, he still fought, he still moved forward.

It was all anyone could and Harry was proud of George for doing what he could to live his life.

It's all Fred would have wanted.

Lunch ended up drifting well into the evening, which left just a short amount of time for Harry to return home, explain to Hermione and Ginny where he would be for the evening, shower, change and then arrive at The Leaky Cauldron promptly at nine o'clock. Of course, Harry raced through all of those activities so that he would be on time.

Neville was the next person to show up at nearly 9:30 at which point, Harry was already mostly finished with the terrible ale that Tom had pushed in front of him.

Almost immediately afterwards, Ron entered the tavern followed shortly by Dean and Seamus. Harry was amazed at how much each of them had changed in just the few weeks since he had seen them last. Dean had been forced to spend nearly a week in St. Mungo's after The Battle of Hogwarts due to the fact that he had reportedly spent nearly twenty minutes dueling Rabastan Lestrange with a wand that he had simply found lying on the ground at Hogwarts. The stress from using that much magic for that long of a time with a foreign wand apparently caused him to suffer from a series of blackouts, solved only by copious amounts of food, a solution that Dean had no problem indulging in.

Seamus, complete with a thin beard, had been staying with Dean. Reportedly, Seamus' relationship with his mother was not in a good place. After that battle, she was one of the people (a distinct minority but a group still large enough to be heard) who had blamed Harry for the entire war, let alone the battle at a school. When Seamus had first heard this, he had tried to explain to his mother what had happened (as much as he knew). But it was clear that after years of indoctrination by the former Ministry, there was no getting through to her. That night, Seamus packed up his belongings and stole away to Dean's home in Stratford.

He hadn't returned home since that night and his letters to his mother had gone unanswered. For Seamus' sake, Harry hoped that he was able to restore his relationship with his mother someday. Too many families had been ripped apart due to death for a mother to ostracize her living son.

Neville had also accepted Kingsley's offer to join the Auror Academy. It made sense. While Neville was no longer looked at as the inept child he had been, there was still the matter of living up to his parents' legacy that would always push Neville to do better. That had especially become true as two days after The Battle of Hogwarts, only a few hours apart, both Frank and Alice Longbottom passed away in their sleep.

Reportedly, in the hour before her death, Alice spoke her first word since the attack: son. When Neville told them this, Harry could help but notice that he said it with a bit of relief. For decades, they had been stuck in a place somewhere between life and death, alive in the technical sense while closer to death than present in life. Now, whatever peace could be found on the other side was theirs for the taking.

After a couple rounds of the most watered down ale Harry had ever tasted (which admittedly wasn't a long list), Seamus revealed his plan for the evening. Apparently, a new Muggle bar had opened just a few blocks from Diagon Alley. Seamus had already purchased two rooms at the Cauldron for the evening just in case which, in Harry's mind, might have been the most planning Seamus had ever done in his life that didn't involve girls or blowing something up.

This new bar was supposedly a relatively relaxed spot, specifically intended for people roughly their age. Of course, most Muggles their age were getting ready to head off to university while they were getting ready to start their careers.

Three of them were anyway. On their way to the bar, Neville and Ron had already started talking about what they expected the Auror Academy to be like. At the same time, Harry listened to Dean mentioned that he had decided to skip returning to Hogwarts. Instead, he had been hired by the Wimbourne Wasps where he would be working as a league scout. That meant that his job was to attend the game of the team the Wasps would be playing next, taking notes on things that he thought they could take advantage of.

He was literally watching Quidditch for a living.

Meanwhile, Seamus joining the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, a level of irony that left Harry laughing out loud. Apparently, Professor McGonagall herself had sent a letter of recommendation, claiming that other than Sirius Black and the Weasley twins, she had known "no one quite as versed in the ways of chaos, calamity and carnage."

They had hired him on the spot.

Once again, everyone around him seemed to be moving on with their lives. Yet, Harry remained stuck in place, living in his deceased godfather's home without a plan for what he was doing.

Harry decided that was a problem for tomorrow. Tonight, Harry would simply enjoy himself.

And enjoy himself he did. The bar was as low-key as advertised with lounge chairs instead of bar stools. It felt a bit like the Gryffindor Common Room but with whiskey and gin instead of pumpkin juice. The five boys of Gryffindor enjoyed their evening. They did, in fact, convince Neville to talk to a Muggle girl.

However, Harry could hear Neville explain that he was dating someone right now and was only talking to her so his friends would leave him alone.

She gave him her number and said that if he decided the girl he was seeing wasn't for him, that he was supposed to give her a call. Harry couldn't help but laugh. Years ago, Neville would have begged for a chance with a beautiful girl. Now, he was turning down a girl who was readily handing him her number to stay with Ginny.

The night went well. Conversation stuck to the upcoming Quidditch League, the rumors that George and Harry were interested in buying the Chudley Cannons (not true but an interesting idea) and Lee Jordan and Katie Bell's upcoming wedding (apparently, he had proposed to her the morning of the Battle).

It was the walk home where things got interesting. While it was only a few blocks from the bar back to the Leaky Cauldron, none of them had quite realized just how much they had consumed that evening until they went to stand up. Suddenly, a walk that had taken them roughly fifteen minutes on the way there took them nearly an hour on the way back, highlighted by Dean finally emptying his stomach in an alley only half a block from The Leaky Cauldron.

Harry stumbled into his room, followed by Ron and Neville. None of them bothered changing into any different clothes. They simply collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

When Harry awoke, he couldn't tell whether it was minutes later or if it was possible that he had slept for several years. The room spun as Harry sat up, sunlight pouring into the window. If Harry had been aware, he would have noticed that the sun was high in the sky. As it was, Harry wasn't aware of much at the moment other than the splitting headache pressing on the back of his skull.

Harry turned, nearly falling off the bed as he did, trying to see what Ron and Neville were doing. However, when he looked at the other bed they had shared, it was empty. Harry's first thought was that they had likely gone down to the barroom for breakfast. While the thought of food was not necessarily appetizing at the moment, Harry knew that some food in his stomach might keep the room from spinning.

So, it was with great support from the walls that Harry made his way down the stairs to the barroom. Harry's intention was to have a seat at the bar and order some food. What actually happened was that Harry took one step away from the wall and immediately lurched forward, his face ready for impact with the floor.

At least it would have been if someone hadn't been there to keep him from going down in the first place. Looking to his right, Harry saw Cho Chang's head appear under his arm, taking his weight onto her shoulders.

"You alright there, Harry?" Cho smirked as she lead Harry towards the bar.

"Been better." Harry slurred gently as he slumped onto a bar stool. Once Cho saw that he was steady, she took the seat next to him.

"Drinking for any reason in particular?" Cho asked as she motioned for Tom to bring some food.

"Nope. Guys in my year went to a bar last night. Drank too much so we crashed here."

"How much did you have to drink?"

"Like five or eight beers?"

"Five or eight?" Cho said with a cocked eyebrow.

"Well, I remember five but I feel like eight's a better answer for how I look."

"It would certainly be if you were an alcoholic." Cho remarked. "But I have to guess that you don't drink much."

"Last night was the…..third time?"

"Well, you're handling yourself pretty well for only your third time."

"Am I at least sitting up straight?"

Cho laughed. "Would you like the truth?"

"No."

"Good. You should lean up against the bar. It'll keep the room from spinning quite so much."

"Sounds like you've got some experience with this kind of thing."

"I've worked for the Ministry of Magic for the last year. It was part of the job description while Thicknesse was in charge."

"Damn." Harry replied. "I didn't know you worked at the Ministry."

"When was the last time you talked to me, Harry?"

"The memorial." It was an answer that Harry wouldn't have given had he been sober. As it was, he was struggling to stay upright, let alone keep his mouth from flapping inappropriately.

"Right." Cho replied, deflating quickly. Even in his rough state, Harry could see what his words did to Cho, reminding her of friend's death once more. Obviously, he hadn't intended to hurt her.

"Sorry. You're right. We haven't talked that much."

"Yeah."

"We could change that."

Cho turned to him, a clear look of confusion on her face.

"Excuse me?"

If Harry had stopped to think, he would have probably lost his nerve. But the way things stood in his life, Harry wanted something to change. He wanted to feel some sort of evolution in his life. While some would look at spending time with Cho as reverting back to an older version of him, Harry didn't feel the same way.

Harry was different from then and Cho seemed to be different too. Even if nothing came of it, just stepping out of his comfort zone and doing something different would be a step in the right direction.

"We haven't talked much. We should change that."

"Why?"

"Why not?" Harry replied, turning slowly in his chair to face Cho. "Listen, I'm hungover, I'm not drunk. Right now, all I really want is a big, greasy meal, the world's glass of water and my bed. But after that, I would love to take a shower and meet you for dinner."

It was as articulate as Harry could possibly have been at that moment and he suddenly found himself hoping that it would work.

Cho stared at Harry for a moment, clearly confused. Harry watched as her face seemed to shift from confusion to consideration to something that Harry didn't recognize.

"It's not a date." Cho finally said sternly, the look on her face letting Harry know just how serious she was about their evening _not_ being a date.

"That's fine." Harry replied. "Not a date. Dinner between acquaintances."

"There will be no nightcap at your place or mine." Cho added. "Or anywhere else."

"Cho, it's dinner, I get it." Harry smirked. "You make the rules. We'll do dinner. If we decide we're having a good time and want to do something else, great. But I'm expecting dinner and then a very early bedtime for me this evening."

Cho considered Harry's offer for a moment before she nodded her head.

"The shower is a good idea. You smell a bit of beer."

"My apologies."

"Meet here at eight. Wear the suit you wore when you showed up at the Ministry when we caught the Malfoys."

"How do you know what I was wearing? More importantly, how did you know we caught the Malfoys?"

"I work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Plus, I saw you walking through the Atrium that day. You looked good."

"So I'm wearing a suit. You're sure this is just dinner?"

"It's a nice dinner. I love this place but I have to dine alone most of the time because my friends can't afford it."

"And you think I can?"

"You're a Potter. If you inherited any of your grandfather's money, you'll be fine. Plus, you inherited the Black seat in the Wizengamot which also means that you inherited the estate."

"You know a lot about this stuff."

"It was my dad's thing."

"Was?"

"Maybe we'll talk about that tonight." Cho replied as she stood up. "I've got some work to do. Eat what Tom brings you until you feel right. Go home, get some rest and meet me here in that suit at eight."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'll see you tonight, Harry."

"Until then."

With that, Cho collected her things and was gone. Harry sat as Tom fed him plate after plate of eggs and sausages. Finally, when he felt up to it, Harry Apparated back to Grimmauld Place where he set his alarm clock before collapsing onto his bed.

It wasn't a date. Harry wasn't interested in a date, to be honest. He was interested in moving forward and dinner with Cho Chang certainly counted, even if it was just a small step in the right direction.


	12. Twelve

Harry stood in the center of The Leaky Cauldron, dressed in the exact suit that Cho had asked him to wear, complete with black silk tie. She had told him to meet at eight o'clock.

So, of course, Harry had arrived twenty minutes early.

Still, it was now ten after eight and there was still no sign of Cho. Maybe she was standing him up; some kind of punishment for the way he treated her in school? Harry didn't think that was likely but he couldn't honestly say that he knew Cho well enough to know one way or another whether that was her style.

Harry was especially nervous because the longer he stood there, the more attention he attracted from the tavern. Of course, when Harry had walked into the room, all eyes had locked on him. But after only a few minutes, most of the patrons had returned to their food, only sparing a few darts of the eyes towards him. Now, the fact that he stood alone, clearly waiting for someone while dressed as nicely as he was, was attracting its own attention.

Before Harry could give another thought to anyone else, Cho entered The Leaky Cauldron and Harry's brain stopped operating. Cho would never be confused for a supermodel. For one thing, she wasn't particularly tall. She also lacked the curves that most men seemed to ogle over (she had been quite the athlete at school after all).

But she was gorgeous nonetheless. Cho's dress was ostensibly silver but every time she turned or moved or even if the light hitting her adjusted slightly, the colors the silvery material reflected changed massively, covering every color of the rainbow and even some additional ones. The dress came to just below her knees and was cut longer in the back than in the front, showing off her incredibly toned legs. But the dress' main feature was the back, which was almost completely gone, wrapping from her waist up and around her shoulders, leaving her back open to the world.

If the room had gone quiet when Harry entered the room, it paled in comparison to the hush that fell over the crowd when Cho walked in.

"It's rude to stare." Cho mused gently as she stopped in front of him. "Also, your mouth is open."

"Cho, what the hell?" Harry replied, not even bothering to stop staring.

"I said we were going to a nice dinner."

"Yes, you did but why the hell did we have to meet here? Everyone is going to assume that we're going on a date!"

"Why should I care what they think?"

"You don't have to care." Harry said as he took Cho by the arm and lead her towards the door. Once they were out the door and back on the streets of Muggle London, Harry turned back to Cho.

"But I do."

Cho considered Harry's point for a moment before nodding her head.

"You're right." Cho replied. "I didn't even think about it. I'm sorry."

"It's not a big deal." Harry answered before reconsidering. "Well, it kind of is. It's definitely going to be in The Prophet on Monday morning but we'll survive."

"So you say. I saw what Rita Skeeter did to you during your fourth year." Cho chuckled.

"True but I'm still in the post-Battle honeymoon. No one would dare drum up stupid rumors like that yet."

"That's next week, right?" Cho said, flashing a brilliant smile as she joked with Harry.

"Something like that."

The rest of the brief walk to restaurant was filled with some idle chat about some of their former Hogwarts classmates, much like the conversation at the bar the previous night had been. When they arrived at the restaurant, Harry was surprised to see what was clearly a Ministry of Magic logo on the front door.

"The Ministry gives out permits to restaurants all around London that allow them to serve both Muggle and Magical people. They have to apply for a special permit and they're subject to weakly inspections." Cho said. When she noticed Harry's look, she added: "Don't worry about the logo. It's a rune so the Muggles can't see it."

"I never knew that they did things like that."

"It's not something most people know about. Obviously, most Purebloods wouldn't deign themselves to dine with Muggles and the average Muggleborn doesn't know these places even exist."

"You fall somewhere in between?"

"Sort of." Cho said, walking past Harry as he opened the door for her. "I'm an original. I just don't care."

For a moment, Harry was going to ask what she meant by the word _original_ before Harry realized that this restaurant would likely have Muggles in the front area. So, original instead of Pureblood. It was a simple enough code for Harry to understand.

Harry noticed once they were inside the restaurant that there was a rather large group of people waiting for a table. While Harry wouldn't mind the time to talk to Cho, he was rather hungry as his grumbling stomach so kindly reminded him. However, instead of waiting in line, Cho walked straight through the crowd who waited for a table and approached the maitre'd.

"Sam, I would like my usual table, prepared for two."

"Of course, Ms. Chang." Sam replied, instantly recognizing Cho. "Follow me."

The fact that they were able to skip the entire line made Harry feel for those people who were still waiting their turn. But, on the other side, they had skipped the line and the staff hadn't even looked at Harry. They had gotten through entirely on Cho's reputation.

An incredibly high reputation for someone who was only a year removed from taking her NEWTs.

Her table was in the center of a room that was full of people who were clearly witches and wizards. In fact, one man even had an owl sitting on his shoulder, who he was feeding scraps of whatever was left on his plate. But unlike every magical room that Harry had ever walked into, no one even bothered to turn and look at him.

The look of surprise on his face must have been apparent because Cho laughed at him as they took their seats.

"Harry, these people have bigger things to worry about than your presence."

Sure enough, as Harry looked around, he noticed a few people that he recognized. Tiberius Ogden, Kingsley's Senior Undersecretary, sat in the corner at a table with Gawain Robards and two members of the Wizengamot whose names Harry couldn't place at the moment.

At another table sat John Dawlish, now one of the most Senior ranking Aurors, eating dinner with what appeared to be his wife and two children.

It was clear that this was a place for the magical elite, the cream of the crop.

"Cho, how did you get into this place?" Harry asked curiously.

"My father." Cho replied. "He used to work at the Ministry for years. Department of Magical Transportation, although he had no real knowledge in that field. My father is, above all else, a politician."

"You say he used to work for the Ministry. What does he do now?"

"Technically, I suppose you could say that he's retired. But he's still there, behind the scenes like he's always been. People come and talk to him, ask him for advice or favors. Nothing illegal, as far as I know, but he's the king of backroom deals. It was his job at the Ministry and he's just as good at wielding his influence from outside the Ministry as he was in it."

"I had no idea."

"Despite his popularity and influence, he values privacy or should I say secrecy. He only rarely makes public appearances and even when he does, it's never as the guest of honor. He just shows up, talks to a few people, shares a drink with the host and then leaves."

"I wish I could do that."

"I imagine it is tough to do that when the whole world has their eyes on you." Cho answered. "It's why I wanted to come here. Everyone knows who you are, obviously, but they really don't care. This group will care under two circumstances: if you are useful and if you are powerful."

"For this group, I don't care to be much of either at the moment."

"That's not what I heard from my resources inside the Wizengamot."

The phrase "resources inside the Wizengamot" intrigued Harry. Cho, a relatively new member of the Ministry, was already citing her own agents inside the Wizengamot. It seemed that the apple did not fall far from that particular tree.

"What do they tell you, Ms. Chang?" Harry said with a wicked twinkle in his eye.

"That you have been largely absent from most of the meetings but that when you are there, it is clear that you understand the power that you wield. However, they remain uncertain if that understanding will lead to something positive."

"Why is that?"

"They are not yet sure that you know just how to use it."

"I use it by helping people." Harry fired back. "How else?"

Harry didn't exactly know how to read Cho yet but the look on her face at Harry's comment was not altogether positive.

"The Wizengamot is not something that you just walk in and take over, Harry." Cho said, her voice clipped and clear but quiet enough that no one other than Harry could hear her. "For now, they listen to you and follow your lead. But when the honeymoon is over and the memory of the Battle of Hogwarts is long gone, they'll expect you to help them just as often as they help you."

"Wizengamot members are selected one of three ways. First, they inherit a family seat, much like you did with the Black seat. Second, they are the appointed member from their Ministry department. Finally, they are one of the alloted appointees for each Minister to make."

"I'm aware of this." Harry replied. "You think I didn't do my research before I jumped into that?"

"I've heard that you are a "leap first, ask questions later" type." Cho said wryly. "I know enough about you to agree with that sentiment. In either case, your awareness of it is one thing but if you really want to affect change, you've got to be willing to play their game."

"What if I change the game first?" Harry asked. "I'll always have my seat. I have the resources and the allies to press my advantage now. What if we're able to enact so much change over the next year that we effectively rewrite the rules of the game?"

Cho considered him for a moment before smiling slyly.

"You _are_ the only one that could do that." Cho admitted. "But you will still need help."

"And you know where to get it?"

"Between my father and I, yes."

"Is that why you agreed to this dinner?" Harry said, doing exactly as Cho said and confronting her directly.

Cho opened her mouth to speak but paused before any sound could come out. It was clear based on the fire in her eyes, that she intended to be offended. But as she settled back into her seat, she looked calmer.

"Partially, yes." Cho admitted. "In truth, I agreed to come to this dinner because you intrigue me."

"What?" Harry questioned. That was certainly not the answer that Harry had expected.

"It's why I was interested in you in the first place, Harry, all those years ago. I've lived the darker side of our society: the backroom deals, the private conversations, the money changing hands. Most of it is legal but that doesn't make it right."

"Then, along comes Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. Multiple times during our time at school, the whole world, myself included, turned against you. Any of those times, but particularly the Triwizard Tournament, you could have chosen to walk away and leave us to our fate. Whether there was some kind of prophecy or not, you had the choice to leave the people who didn't believe in you and you didn't."

"Would you?"

"Yes." Cho admitted. "Harry, I don't think you understand just how rare your compassion for others is in our world. If the Chosen One had been almost anyone else, our world would have been doomed. Typically, I found find that kind of generosity boring and highly impractical. It is something to value certainly but it doesn't usually make a person interesting. But you? You manage pull it off. It's clear to the rest of the world that, despite your compassionate nature, you aren't a saint. Not that you're a bad person but you never appeared to be an angel like Dumbledore."

"If you only knew…." Harry muttered.

"I read Skeeter's book."

"Not that it was a valuable resource." Harry added. "There's so much that didn't make it into the book."

"I read between the lines, just like you have to do with everything she writes." Cho countered. "In either case, most people who seem to fight for people like that are a wet blanket. They aren't willing to get their hands dirty and they aren't willing to play the game."

"Who says I am?"

"Because, without anyone asking you, you inserted yourself into the Wizengamot. You could have chosen a proxy and never looked back but you didn't. Now, I know you don't like the game. The fact that your first thought is to alter it beyond the point of recognition says enough about that. But I think my resources, who don't know you personally by the way, don't understand you that well."

"And you think that you do?"

"I don't know you that well." Cho admitted again. "Especially in your more recent years. But I watched you from a distance, just like everyone else did. Those of us that went to school with you and weren't blinded by personal pursuits, petty jealousy or house rivalries, we all saw the same thing."

"And that was?"

"A boy...then, a man who was willing to do what it takes to make the world a better place. Dumbledore's Army is the perfect example of that."

Harry was surprised that Cho, someone who he had barely had contact with over the last two years, had such a favorable impression of him, especially considering how they parted ways. But as Harry looked at the woman across from him, he realized that he could only barely recognize the same sixth year girl that he had dated only a few years earlier.

Gone was the overly emotional girl (although Harry was well aware that he probably should have handled her emotions as well as his own better). Now, she sat tall, confident of what she saw and the words she spoke. The same genuine smile was still there but instead of giving off a somewhat vapid and vacant vibe, it was clear that she felt more secure of herself and of her place in this world.

"What happened to you, Cho?" Harry blurted out before he could stop himself.

Cho didn't answer at first. But when she did, she answered earnestly. Harry appreciated this because she could have chosen not to answer him at all. Instead, for the first time in a long time, she opened up to him.

But unlike the last time, when he had been too lost in the emotions of Cedric's death, Harry was better equipped to handle it.

"My mother was an Auror." Cho whispered. "One of the best, according to everyone who worked for her. Obviously, I don't know much about her work but I do know that she loved it. Just before the Ministry fell, she was on a case and it was big. She wouldn't tell us what it was but over the span of a few months, she quizzed me on some of the people that went to school with us. I think she was trying to put together a case against the Malfoys."

"Everyone knew they were Death Eaters. Why did she need a case?"

"Because after Voldemort disappeared, Lucius got out of prison by saying that he had been placed under the Imperius Curse. He would have done it again if he had been given the chance. As it was, the chances of him remaining in Azkaban long term were small without more than just the Department of Mysteries to go on. When Scrimgeour was killed and Thicknesse took over, he met with my mother and ordered her to stop looking into...whatever it was. Mom came home, packed some bags and said that she was going undercover, that she wouldn't stop until she uncovered the truth. Dad and I, we tried to stop her but she was so damn stubborn."

"Her body turned up in the Thames four months later. They suspect that she had been captured by the Death Eaters or an ally of theirs and tortured for at least a month before she was finally killed and then dumped in the river. At the time, I had been just floating along at an entry level job in the DMLE. With the occupation, there was no sense in trying too hard. I wasn't connected to Voldemort or any of the old Pureblood families in any way. There was no chance for me to get promoted. But, I knew that I could do more and I knew that's what she would have wanted for me. But I also wanted it for her. I knew….well, I hoped that you would come back and beat Voldemort someday. So, I went to my father and offered to be his informant on the condition that he allow me to run his connections with the Ministry."

"I assume that he agreed?"

"Not at first but the first time that I interfered with one of his sources, he realized that I was starting to collect some real sway at the Ministry."

"How? You're still relatively new to the Ministry."

"Honestly, it's my connection to my father." Cho admitted. "My father may not have allied himself with the old guard but he had his ways of working with them. They knew that he knew their secrets and didn't dare cross him. As long as my father stayed silent, they let him be and kept pushing me further up within the Ministry. His connections got me into a lot of doors that would have normally been locked to me. A year ago, roughly about the time that Mother died, I was an entry level employee with the DMLE. Now, I am the primary Wizengamot consultant for the Head of the Department."

"You work with Meredith Breckinridge?"

"I am her chief adviser on all things related to the Wizengamot."

"Sounds like you're a good person to know."

"If you're on my good side, yes." Cho smiled. "Anyway, less talk about work."

"That isn't why you agreed to meet me?"

"I knew we would talk about it but honestly, I said yes because you asked. You went out of your way to connect with me. Even after everything that went down with Marietta, you went out of your way to talk with me at the memorial and then again at the Leaky Cauldron."

"To be fair, my head was swimming this morning so I might have just been too hungover to realize I was being an idiot."

"Still." Cho smiled sweetly. "Anyway, when do you start at the Auror Academy?"

The question shocked Harry slightly. While Harry had already decided that he wasn't going to become an Auror, he supposed that he had yet to make that news public. Considering the fight between McGonagall and Umbridge during Harry's career evaluation (which had become part of school legend despite the fact that only three people had been present), everyone knew about Harry's desire to become an Auror, something he had yet to publicly dismiss.

"Uh...I'm not."

"Really?" Cho asked with intrigue. "Why not?"

"For some reason, I'm a bit tired of chasing Dark wizards around." Harry smirked. "I want to do something with my life that doesn't involve constantly putting my life on the line."

"So, if not that, then what are you doing?"

It was the question that had been running through his head almost every day since May 2nd. Harry knew that simply sitting around with his money was an option, although not one that Harry found personally viable. As much as he loved Quidditch and could certainly get signed by a club somewhere simply for being Harry Potter, Quidditch wasn't something that he saw himself wanting to do in ten years.

So what was he going to do? Harry realized that, for the first time since he had asked the question, he had an answer.

"I'm going back to Hogwarts." Harry said, a rush of warmth coming over him as he realized that he was, in fact, going to be able to go home again. The school that had become the backbone of his life in the magical world would once again be there to support him as he figured out what he was doing now that Voldemort was dead.

"Really? I didn't figure that taking your NEWTs was that big of a deal to you."

"It is when you want to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts." Harry said with a grin. "McGonagall gave me an apprenticeship for two years so that I can finish school and then do my extended education."

"Then you'll be the Defense professor at Hogwarts?"

"If I want the job, yes." Harry replied. "Bill and Fleur Weasley are co-teaching it for two years and then I will take over."

Suddenly, Harry sat in the middle of a dinner with a woman that he only barely knew and finally felt that he had a sense of direction for his life. Relief washed over Harry as he relaxed into his chair, content with the decision that he had made. Obviously, he would have to let McGonagall know in relatively short order that he had accepted her offer.

But that time would come later. For now, he would enjoy a simple dinner with someone who he was interested in getting to know better.

Through dinner (a wonderful fish-based dish that Harry couldn't name if he tried), the pair chatted easily, bouncing through conversation like a Bludger in a hailstorm. They talked about Quidditch and the renewed rumors that Harry and George were trying to buy the Cannons, which just like the night before, Harry had to refute. After that, they pivoted to the number of new shops that had popped up in Diagon Alley since the war had finished.

They ended their evening with a wonderful raspberry sorbet and a talk about a number of their old classmates and what they were doing after they had left Hogwarts.

Upon hearing about Lee and Katie's upcoming wedding, Cho expressed surprise that Katie was marrying anyone. According to some of Cho's friends, Katie had been the subject of a cruel prank the summer after she graduated from Hogwarts.

Apparently, some insidious Slytherins in her year had created a series of letters from a boy that Katie had met from Beauxbatons, inviting her to stay the summer with him before she started her Quidditch career. Needless to say, Katie jumped at the offer, sending him dozens of reply letters, all of which ended up in the Slytherin Common Room for everyone to read.

It had come to a head the day before The Battle of the Astronomy Tower when Katie saw her owl deliver a letter to the Slytherin table. Within a few hours, she had put together exactly what had happened, a malicious plan that had been in the making for months. If she hadn't discovered it that day, she would have likely paid a fair sum of money to get to France, only to find no one there to meet her.

Or worse: a group of Slytherins there to laugh at her plight.

Once dinner was over, Harry escorted Cho back to her apartment, a flat literally across the street from the Ministry of Magic entrance. It was also secretly only two or three blocks from Harry's home at Grimmauld Place but for the time being, Harry neglected to share that information.

As they approached the door to her building, she climbed the steps before turning back to Harry.

"You aren't coming up." she said shortly.

"Of course not, it wasn't a date." Harry said with a smile.

"Right." Cho said, although Harry thought that she didn't seem to believe it. "We should have another not date sometime."

"I would like that." Harry replied, unable to fight back the smile plastered on his face.

"Me too." Cho said before she climbed back down the steps until she was on the same level as Harry, her eyes just under his nose looking up at his.

"I meant what I said, Harry." she said earnestly. "The world doesn't deserve you."

"It does." Harry argued. "The world deserves to have people fight for it. If more people realized that, things might be better."

Cho smiled before popping up onto her toes and placing a small kiss on Harry's lips. When she settled back down onto the ground, her smile changed, a hint of nervousness hiding behind her grinning lips.

"With you leading the charge, I might just believe that."

Harry watched Cho as she turned back up the stairs, unlocked the front door and disappeared behind the wood of the door. For a few moments, Harry stood in place, watching where she had been only moments earlier as he reflected on the night he had just had.

Eventually, Harry turned and walked the short trip back to Grimmauld Place. The whole time he walked, he considered what another night with Cho would look like. It seemed as if life had rotated back to being fifteen years old again. He certainly was interested in Cho, now more than ever.

But, he was also aware that he wasn't certain he was ready for any sort of real relationship at the moment. While things were starting to improve in his life, there was still a part of him that hadn't completely healed from the war yet. If Harry was being truthful, he was worried that it would never really heal: a hole inside of him shaped like all those that he had lost.

That was added by the fact that there was still some confusion on how he felt about Ginny. He did not regret his decision to walk away from his relationship with her. However, because they had both done so amicably, there was no resentment, no anger harbored towards the other. The things about Ginny that he had fallen in love with were still there.

He didn't want to date her but that didn't stop him from having feelings for her.

Harry supposed he was getting ahead of himself. Cho had said that she was interested in another "not-date." While both of them knew what they meant, it was clear by the fact that neither of them had directly addressed that head-on that neither of them were trying to move things too quickly. Harry would certainly go on another "not-date" with Cho and see where things took him.

As he entered Grimmauld Place, he was surprised to see that Hermione was still up.

In fact, it looked like she had been waiting for him.

"Hermione, what is it?"

"Kingsley stopped by about an hour ago." Hermione said softly. "He had a couple of things to tell you but you weren't here."

"I had...dinner."

"A date?" Hermione asked sensitively.

"Sort of? It wasn't not a date...but it definitely wasn't a date either."

"With who?"

"...Cho."

As expected, Hermione's mood shifted entirely upon his utterance of Cho's name. Almost immediately, Hermione looked ready to roll her eyes out of her sockets.

"We're going to do this again?"

"Maybe?" Harry admitted. "She's different."

"Different how?"

"Just..different." Harry said dismissively. "What did Kingsley want?"

Hermione looked as if she was going to press Harry more on his date but chose against it. Instead, she handed Harry what appeared to be an unfinished Daily Prophet.

"You're going to get questions about it so you might as well be prepared." Hermione explained as she handed the paper to him. "Someone at the Prophet caught wind of your deal with the Malfoys."

"And?"

"You're not going to read the article?"

"I could or you could just tell me what it says since you've clearly already read it and then we don't have to waste that time."

"Fine." Hermione scoffed. "The article outlines the deal that you made with Narcissa and Draco. It does not necessarily paint it in a positive light. But it does approve of you going after Lucius."

"It names me specifically?"

"Yes. It's clear that you were brought in to talk with the Malfoys and that you got Narcissa and Draco to fold on Lucius. While it doesn't like your deal necessarily, it does do a great deal into promoting just how much sway you have with the Ministry at the moment. While it doesn't comment directly on that, my guess is going to be that people are going to believe this to be the case."

"Even if it isn't."

"Harry, if Kingsley had fought you on the deal, would you have simply let Kingsley do what he wanted?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

Hermione smiled knowingly. "Harry, I love you but you have a problem with authority sometimes, especially when they aren't doing what you believe to be right."

"Guilty as charged." Harry smirked.

"Anyway, so that's in there, as is the murder of an entire team of Aurors by a group of fugitive Death Eaters led by Sewlyn."

"Sewlyn?" Harry replied in surprised. "He doesn't seem like he would pull enough weight to get other Death Eaters to follow him."

"That's the last piece of the article." Hermione informed him. "It speculates that Antonin Dolohov is now in charge of the Death Eaters."

"Dolohov is in jail."

"I'm aware."

"So, this article speculates that Dolohov is leading the Death Eaters from behind the bars of Azkaban, which would represent a severe breach of security at the prison."

"It's not impossible." Hermione admitted. "With the dementors gone, Azkaban is being staffed by as many Aurors as they can but it's not enough. With the right money, and Dolohov's family had plenty, he could theoretically be getting messages in and out."

"Well, hopefully, we can get him convicted and then there will be nothing to talk about anymore."

Hermione grimaced at the mention of a conviction. "What is it?"

"The last thing Kingsley talked about. He went before the Wizengamot today and informed them that you, Ron and I would be testifying before them on Monday."

"Monday? That's soon." Harry replied in surprise. "I mean, I knew that he was going to have us do it eventually but I'm surprised he was able to get them on the same page so quickly."

"When they were promised the untold story of Lord Voldemort's defeat, I'm certain they got on board quickly."

"I suppose that's true." Harry replied. "We knew that this day was going to come eventually."

"Have you thought about what version of the true story you are going to tell them?"

"You're referring to my trip to Kings Cross Station?" Harry said cryptically, unsure if Ginny was home and listening.

Hermione smirked. "She's on a date when Neville so we're safe and yes, that is part of what I was referring to."

"What was the other part?"

"Parts exactly. Two things: Severus Snape and...Ron."

"What about them?"

"Let's be honest, Harry. They aren't going to want to hear this story from Ron or I, they are going to want to hear it from your mouth."

"And?"

"Are you going to tell them that Snape was on our side?"

"I haven't decided."

"Are you going to tell them that Ron left?"

"No."

"Then how did we get the Sword of Gryffindor?"

Immediately, Harry realized that Hermione made a good point. Harry was going to have to reveal one or the other. Either he was going to have to tell the truth or create some sort of fake scenario where Ron left, stole the Sword from Snape's office and returned the triumphant hero.

Only one of those stories would pass the test and unfortunately for Ron, it was not the latter.

"Snape gave it to me." Harry replied regretfully. "I'll make sure that is part of the redacted information. The less information available to the public, the less the remaining Death Eaters can know."

"Makes sense."

"I'm off to bed." Harry said suddenly, standing from his seat across from Hermione. "I need to meet with McGonagall tomorrow before we talk to the Wizengamot Monday."

"So you're taking her offer?"

"I am." Harry said firmly. "I feel like I need to complete that last chapter of my life before I move onto the next. Plus, it also gives me a nice step into the next part of my life with the potential to teach at Hogwarts."

"Maybe you'll just stay there forever?" Hermione said, clearly joking although Harry didn't really think that was too terrible a potential future.

"Maybe." Harry answered softly as he left the kitchen, heading towards his room where he fell fast asleep

The next morning, after sending her an owl to confirm his appointment, he walked into Professor McGonagall's office, standing in front of her desk while he waited for the Headmistress to finish working on some document that sat in front of her. Finally, she finished her work and looked up at him, a wry smile crossing her face.

"Mr. Potter, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You gave me time to think about your offer and I have decided to accept it."

McGonagall gave a short smile, looking as pleased as Harry had ever seen her.

Then she replied, "Of course you did."

"You knew I would?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think you would say yes." McGonagall reasoned. "When I was told by the Minister of Magic that you were no longer considering becoming an Auror, I took a chance that you would desire to become the one thing that you should have considered from the beginning: an educator."

"Well, I'm glad that you have faith in me."

"I do. However, do not let it be wasted. You have a natural gift for Defense but these next two years will be the hardest of your educational life. If you do not work for the opportunity you have been given, you will fail, no matter how much talent you have."

"I understand."

"You don't." McGonagall countered. "But you will. Now, there is one small matter I would like to discuss with you: your living situation."

"What about it?"

"Being that you are of age, there is the potential that I can grant you some leniency in your living arrangements. Typically, you would still be required to live at the school. However, considering that I am aware of your residence and I know the protections there, I am prepared to offer you a limited exemption."

"Limited? How?"

"You will be able to return to Grimmauld Place or, if you so choose, The Burrow on any weekend of your choosing. Assuming that you provide adequate notice, we can arrange to have that weekend spent elsewhere."

"Why do I have to arrange it with you?"

McGonagall looked at him strangely. "Have you not noticed?"

"Not noticed what?"

McGonagall chuckled.

"They must be doing a good job." she muttered, mostly to herself before looking up at Harry. "Kingsley and Gawain Robards have had a rotating team of Aurors watching your home every day since the Battle. They will remain at that location but an additional guard is being placed around the school until the threat of the Death Eaters has been resolved."

"I'm being watched?" Harry asked, blatantly ignoring everything else the Headmistress had said.

"My boy, what would it look like if you survived Voldemort only to be killed by some random Death Eater. While no one can seem to remember exactly where your home is, Kingsley retained enough of a memory of its general location to place a team outside of it."

"So I'm not being followed."

"Just observed. You are perfectly free to go where you wish but once school starts back up, I would ask that you report your comings and goings to me so I can help the Ministry protect you."

"What if I say no? What if I said that I wanted to live at home?"

"You don't." McGonagall said with a knowing smirk.

"What if I did?"

"Harry, do not think that I am as impressed by your fame as others. Dumbledore, for all of his successes, used this school as a political tool far too often for my liking, a trait I will not share with him. If you are to work for me, and more importantly for the next year, be a student here at this school, you will follow my instructions."

Harry smiled at his professor.

"You got it."

McGonagall looked at him in confusion before nodding her head slightly.

"Mr. Potter, you have changed much in the last few months."

"When you aren't constantly looking over your shoulder, you notice more and you learn some new tricks. All I'm looking for these days is honesty. I wanted to see what you would say if I pushed back."

"Please continue to test me, Potter. It's good to be reminded that those in power need to prove that they are worthy of it more often than just the day they received it."

"Will do." Harry agreed. "So, if I go somewhere other than home or The Burrow, I notify you."

"Yes. Having said that, I will want you to meet with Bill and Fleur privately to ensure that you understand your responsibilities in their classroom."

"Gladly."

"Do you have any other questions for me, Potter?"

"Not at the moment, Professor."

"Then go home. I hear you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

"How did you hear about that?"

"I had lunch with the Minister today who may have let slip that my future Defense Professor was testifying in front of the Wizengamot tomorrow." McGonagall said with a wink.

"Good to know that he's sharing state secrets with a schoolteacher." Harry countered.

At that, McGonagall and Harry shared a rare and brief laugh. As they finished, McGonagall stopped and looked at Harry seriously.

"We may joke but you need to prepare yourself. The Wizengamot has been easy on you so far but there are still Death Eater supporters in that room. They won't come after you too hard but they will come after you."

"I'm spending the rest of today preparing answers."

"I trust that Miss Granger came up with that idea."

"Actually, it was me." Harry said with a smile. "I don't think I'll ever want to do politics full time but I am certainly developing a better understanding of it."

"Maturation comes with age for some. I'm glad to see that awareness has come for you instead." McGonagall said. "You will receive more information when your Hogwarts letter comes. Until then, Mr. Potter."

Harry returned home to Grimmauld Place and did exactly as he said, preparing for their testimony the following day with Hermione. However, the whole time, a single thought burned in Harry's mind.

Harry Potter was returning to Hogwarts.


	13. Thirteen

_A/N: Two things:_

 _1\. This is not a Ron bashing fic. Give it some time._

 _2\. This courtroom scene is my least favorite thing about this story. However, I find it entirely unlikely that these three wouldn't getting dragged into court at all. So, this is how I handle it. To be honest, it's probably the most favorable treatment they could have actually gotten._

* * *

Harry and Hermione entered the Atrium at the Ministry of Magic, meeting Ron just inside the entrance. Almost immediately, they realized they had made a giant mistake for they had forgotten that while their particular session of the Wizengamot was private to the public, the Ministry itself was not.

Dozens of reporters almost immediately surrounded the three of them as they made their first public appearance together since The Battle of Hogwarts. Instinctually, Harry grabbed Hermione and Ron's hands and pulled, dragging the pair of them through the crowd, not answering a single question. As they continued to press forward, Harry could see a select group of people rushing towards them clad in red robes. Almost the moment they reached the crowd, the group dispersed, fleeing from the Aurors as they moved to surround Harry, Ron and Hermione, keeping the reporters at bay.

Looking up, Harry saw Gawain Robards standing near the lift to the Courtroom where they would be today.

"Thank you, Gawain." Harry replied. "I guess we warrant your attention today?"

"The three of you coming to the Ministry at the same time is a huge security risk." Gawain explained as he entered the lift with the trio and three additional Aurors following behind him. Harry secretly thought that it might have been the most dangerous elevator anywhere in the world, given the number of ways each of them knew to harm you with a wand. "The murder of any one of you would be a huge boon for the Death Eaters."

"Well, we'll do our best not to get murdered."

"Do your best not to make yourself look foolish, Mr. Potter." Gawain replied. "The moment you enter that courtroom, you are not among friends."

"I didn't know I was among friends now." Harry countered skeptically.

"I'm not your enemy." was all he said in return. However, as the lift hit their floor, Gawain turned and spoke directly to Harry. "I admit that I am uncomfortable with how much sway you hold over the Minister and, by extension, the Ministry. However, you have, for the time being, won my support with the stunt you pulled with the Malfoys."

"I figured you would hate the deal that I gave Narcissa and Draco."

"It's better than seeing Lucius Malfoy go free. The man is responsible for more dead Aurors that Voldemort himself, of that I'm sure. No one deserves to be locked away as much as Lucius Malfoy, not anyone living anyway."

"Glad to be of service then." Harry replied. As Harry spoke, they reached the door to the courtroom. Ron and Hermione entered the room with the rest of their guard while Harry remained behind with Gawain. "I'm not looking to cause problems. I want the same thing you want. If you ever need my help again, consider it done."

Gawain looked at Harry strangely. "What makes you think I will need your help?"

"Because I have a personal relationship with the Minister of Magic, first and foremost." Harry said with a grin. "But more importantly, I worked directly with Albus Dumbledore for a year. During that time, I learned as much as I could about Voldemort. I've also faced the Death Eaters more times on my own than any Auror has. If I were you, that's a resource I would use."

Gawain considered Harry's offer before nodding gently.

"You have a unique way of appealing to people, Mr. Potter."

"It's Harry."

"Well then, Harry, I look forward to work with you again but for now, I believe you have a prior engagement."

Having had his say, Gawain opened the doors to the Courtroom, allowing Harry to enter the room before Gawain. As Harry entered, he scanned the room. It was rare that the entire Wizengamot was convened for a non-essential meeting. Typically, you could count on at least ten members not showing up at any given time.

But as Harry looked around the room, the only empty seat he saw was his own. Instead of going to that seat, however, Harry took a chair in between Ron and Hermione who were seated at a table on the floor in the center of the room. Almost the moment that Harry was seated, a gavel pounded from the very top of the room where the new Chief Warlock sat.

John Dawlish had been Kingsley's choice to replace Tiberius Ogden in the Wizengamot. Almost immediately, Dawlish had been elected by the Wizengamot to serve as its Chief Warlock. With his past as an Auror and the Wizengamot's place in operating the Death Eater Tribunal, it was considered essential that the new Chief Warlock have experience with the law, a bill that only John Dawlish fit.

"Thank you all for coming today." Dawlish said, his voice echoing through the room. "Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt."

As if he appeared from smoke, Kingsley was suddenly standing behind Harry, his voice booming.

"Thank you, Chief Warlock. Before you all begin, I would like to take this moment to exercise the Wizengamot's rules on personal conflicts of interest. In the Ministry's bylaws, it states that for any information granted to the Ministry of Magic that is declared confidential, no member of any Ministry body who directly stands to benefit or could be harmed by this information will be privy to this information. Also, no member of any Ministry body who directly or indirectly associated with and/or related to any party or participant of a confidential matter may be privy to this information."

"Due to the sensitive nature of the testimony that you will hear today, I have, in fact, declared their testimony to be confidential. As a result, only one record of today's testimony will be kept on file and will be secured accordingly, requiring permission from the acting Minister of Magic, Chief Warlock and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to access."

At this moment, Kingsley placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"The words that you will hear from Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley today are of the most sensitive nature. Due to that sensitivity, the following people are disqualified from the following proceedings. When your name is read, please exit the chamber. A redacted statement of today's testimony will be presented to you in the morning."

Kingsley withdrew a piece of parchment from his robes and began listing names of people who would be forced to leave. In the end, it was anyone with a connection to The Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army or the Death Eaters. When Kingsley was finished and everyone who was disqualified had left, only about eight members of the Wizengamot, not including Chief Warlock Dawlish, remained in the room.

"Unfortunately, due to my actions with the Order, this also includes me." Kingsley said, patting Harry on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Minister." Harry said over his shoulder as Kingsley left the room, leaving The Golden Trio with just the few Wizengamot members who remained. Those that were left were clearly surprised by the administrative action taken by the Minister. However, as they settled into the proceedings, Harry could also see that several of them were pleased that they were able to hear the whole story, not some redacted piece of parchment that would certainly obfuscate a number of important facts.

"Mr. Potter, it is my understanding that you alone wish to make an opening statement." Dawlish asked.

"That is correct."

"Please begin by stating your full name for the court."

"Harry James Potter."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Please begin with your statement."

Harry pulled out the brief speech that he had written for this moment from his pocket, slowly unfolded the parchment and laid it out on the table in front of him. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Harry acknowledged the fact that, after today, a far greater number of people would know the true story of Tom Riddle and his descent into the Dark Arts. It was necessary that the Ministry understand the lengths that Riddle went to in order to ensure his perpetual longevity. That meant revealing _most_ of the story, even if Harry didn't truly want to do that.

"The story of our year on the run is related directly to the story of how Tom Riddle came to power as Lord Voldemort. Without the prior knowledge of how he came to power, you cannot properly understand the steps that he took to obtain his power and, as a result, the steps that we had to take to remove that power. If you are patient with me, it is my hope that I can inform you about the basics of Tom Riddle's upbringing and rise to power to further facilitate that understanding."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on December 31, 1926, the last living descendant of Salazar Slytherin and heir to the House of Gaunt. His mother, Merope Gaunt, tricked his father, a muggle also named Tom Riddle, into a loveless relationship through the use of Amortentia, a powerful Love Potion. When Tom Riddle discovered that his wife was a wizard and had manipulated him into a relationship, he abandoned her, leaving her pregnant and alone."

"Merope Gaunt died giving birth to her only child, the man we now know as Lord Voldemort. Riddle grew up at a Muggle orphanage. He felt no love or compassion, had no family to support him and, most importantly, no one to control his darker urges. At a young age, he was already experimenting with his magic, using it to manipulate others and harm animals. Even at this age, he was beginning to take trophies of his conquests, a sign of his domination over others."

"Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Riddle was nothing short of exceptional in every way. He was a popular student, gifted in his classes and a prodigious talent. But already, he was working towards his goal: immortality. The death of his mother had scarred him, giving him his only true fear: death itself. During this time, he began a search for his father among the records of the school, convinced that his father must have been a wizard for his mother would have surely saved herself if she possessed magic. Eventually, he came to the truth: his mother had been the source of his magical abilities, despite likely being a Squib. I believe that it broke him to know that not only was his mother the source of his magic but that he shared his name with a Muggle, a being of lesser quality in his eyes."

"It was in his later years at Hogwarts that Riddle began his true quest towards becoming Voldemort. First, he, not Rubeus Hagrid, as the last heir of Slytherin was responsible for the opening of the Chamber of Secrets in 1943, resulting in the death of Myrtle Warren. Second, and more important, with Myrtle Warren's death, Tom Riddle created his first Horcrux."

While most of the room did not react, Harry was able to see John Dawlish's reaction and it was exactly as Harry expected: he was horrified at the thought of Voldemort creating Horcruxes.

"For those of you less versed in the Dark Arts, a Horcrux is among the Darkest of magics ever discovered. Horcruxes enable the creator to live as long as their Horcrux survives. They are created during the murder of another, when the murderer's soul, having been broken by such a heinous act, is at its weakest. At that moment, there is a ritual that breaks off part of the person's soul and places it in a container of sorts, a Horcrux. That container binds the person to the world and for as long as that Horcrux exists, the owner cannot be killed."

Harry scanned the room to see that the same look of horror that had covered John Dawlish's face was now shared by every person in the room.

"By the time of his attack on my family, Riddle had created five individual Horcruxes from five individual murders. The first was a diary that belonged to Riddle, created by the death of Myrtle Warren. The second was a ring that belonged to his grandfather, a family heirloom."

At this moment, Harry was careful not to reveal the true nature of the ring. The less the public knew of the actual existence of the Deathly Hallows, the better, even if one of them was permanently destroyed already.

"That Horcrux was created with the murder of his father, Tom Riddle Sr. The third Horcrux was a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. It had once belonged to Riddle's grandfather but had been sold to Hepzibah Smith, a elderly woman who collected rare artefacts. The fourth was a cup that Smith also had in her possession that had come from Helga Hufflepuff. Riddle created these Horcruxes nearly simultaneously with the death of Smith and a homeless Muggle that Riddle came across shortly after stealing the items from Smith."

"The last of Riddle's original Horcruxes was the Lost Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. The Diadem had been stolen by Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena, and hidden in the deep woods of Albania. Using his charm, Riddle coaxed the location out of Helena, otherwise known as The Grey Lady, the Ghost of Ravenclaw House. Again, Riddle killed a peasant to create the Horcrux, which he then hid inside Hogwarts."

"This was why Riddle did not die on October 31, 1981 when he murdered my parents. The protective magic that my mother gave me by sacrificing her life for mine should have ended Voldemort there. But the five Horcruxes that he possessed at the time kept him bound to life, a shapeless figure floating through the world."

"Before he returned to his body, he created one last Horcrux: his snake Nagini. He did this with the murder of Bertha Jorkins just before the Quidditch World Cup in 1995."

Finally, Harry looked up from his statement, finding the eyes of the people who remained in the room.

"During my sixth year at Hogwarts, I was instructed by Albus Dumbledore in Voldemort's history so that I could understand just how far Riddle had gone to ensure his immortality. With Dumbledore's death, I elected to forgo my last year at Hogwarts to hunt down and destroy Riddle's remaining Horcruxes, having already destroyed Tom Riddle's diary during my second year. Dumbledore himself had also destroyed the ring the summer before, leaving only The Locket, The Cup, The Diadem and The Snake. This was the task entrusted to me by Albus Dumbledore. I was assisted by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and it was the true reason for our disappearance over the last year."

"What were you doing during your time away from the world?" Dawlish asked.

Before Harry had the opportunity to answer, Ron spoke up.

"We were at my brother's wedding when The Death Eaters took over the Ministry." Ron said firmly, his voice carrying over the room easily. "Almost immediately, the Death Eaters attacked my home. Thankfully, Hermione had been prepared to move if something like this would happen. We spent a month hiding in London at a home protected by the Fidelius Charm."

"Why?"

"The Locket was in the possession of former Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge." Hermione replied. "We orchestrated a plan to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and steal the Locket. While we were successful, we unfortunately allowed Corbin Yaxley to follow us to our safehouse. Once that was discovered, we fled the safehouse, hiding in the woods. We never stayed in the same place for more than a few nights, Apparating up and down the country and hiding as far away from civilization as possible."

Finally, someone other than Dawlish spoke. This time, it was Meredith Breckinridge, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"You say that you were in the possession of one of these Horcruxes?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed.

"Why did you not destroy it?"

"Horcruxes are almost impossible to destroy." Hermione answered. "The nature of their magic means that only the most destructive substances, Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre being some examples, can destroy them. At the time, we did not have a method of destroying them."

"This implies that you gained one?"

"We did." Harry said gently, knowing where this line of questioning would take them.

"How?"

"We gained possession of the Sword of Gryffindor." Harry replied. "The sword, being goblin-made, takes on qualities that make it stronger. In my second year, I stabbed the basilisk with that sword. As a result, the sword could be used to destroy Horcruxes."

"Who gave you the sword?" Dawlish asked.

Harry breathed deep. He had wished all morning that this question not be asked of him. But he knew it would.

"Severus Snape."

Immediately, a smattering of whispers echoed through the open chamber. It eventually got loud enough that, even with the limited number of people present, Dawlish had to bang his gavel several times to restore order.

"Mr. Potter," Meredith started. "You mean to tell me that you were aided by Severus Snape, known Death Eater and the man who killed Albus Dumbledore."

"Yes."

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"Because Severus Snape was a spy for Albus Dumbledore." Harry replied matter-of-factly. "For a time, Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater. But he eventually joined Dumbledore and The Order of the Phoenix, You see, in his youth, Professor Snape fell in love with a girl at Hogwarts. While she did not return that love, Snape vowed to protect her. When Snape discovered that the woman had become a target of his master, he went to Voldemort personally and asked him to spare the woman. Voldemort said he would give her the opportunity to save herself but Snape knew that the woman would not stand down against Voldemort. So, seeing no other choice, Snape went to Dumbledore who hid the woman away from the world in exchange for Snape's loyalty."

"What became of the woman?" Dawlish asked.

"She and her husband were murdered by Lord Voldemort." Harry said cryptically. For a moment, it appeared that this line of questioning was over as most of the Wizengamot members made notes to themselves.

All but one.

"I am curious, Mr. Potter." the man said as he spoke. "Who was the woman?"

"What's your name, sir?" Harry asked.

"Solomon Greengrass." he replied, his voice sharp and clear.

"May I ask what you hope to understand with your original question?"

"Because I was in Severus Snape's class at school." Greengrass replied. "In fact, I shared a dormitory with him. In all our time at school, Severus never so much as looked at a girl at school. All except for one, that is. I highly doubt that any other woman would have spurned such decisive action from the young Snape. If the name that you provide matches with the one that I expect, then I will be able to corroborate your claims."

"Considering the list of crimes that Severus Snape would have been on trial for had he lived, I think it only right that we understand his character. That is, if he, as you say, spied for Dumbledore." Dawlish added.

This was his worst nightmare. The last thing that he wanted the world to know but lying about this wasn't worth the hassle. There would be other things that he would have to keep under wraps. The more he lied, the more chance there was that someone would catch him in a lie.

That meant the truth was the only option.

"Fine." Harry growled. "The woman in question, and the target of Severus Snape's affection, was Lily Evans, my mother."

If the news that Snape had been a spy for Dumbledore had surprised the room, that was nothing compared to the knowledge that Severus Snape had carried a candle for Harry Potter's mother, a child that he had publicly derided for the entire six years that he had been his professor.

"Solomon?" Dawlish asked as he turned to the older man. Greengrass nodded his confirmation of this fact. "Mr. Potter, it is your belief that Severus Snape intervened in an attempt to save your mother's life before she was murdered by He Who Must Not Be Named."

"Voldemort." Harry corrected.

"Excuse me?" Dawlish responded.

"He's dead, Chief Warlock. You can say the name." Harry snapped. "And it is not my belief. Before his death during The Battle of Hogwarts, Severus Snape passed to me a vial with a series of memories that confirmed this for me."

"Why?" Meredith questioned.

The truth was out of the question at this moment. Above all else, the knowledge that Harry had been a pseudo-Horcrux, been killed and then subsequently returned to life was a fact that no one would know.

"Severus Snape had overheard the prophecy given by Sybil Trelawney to Albus Dumbledore that implied that I would be the one to defeat Voldemort. He had passed that information onto him, painting the target on my family."

"So there was, in fact, a prophecy?" Dawlish asked.

"Yes." Harry confirmed before quickly moving on. "It did not specifically name me but the stipulations in it meant that there was a very limited pool of candidates. For whatever reason, Voldemort identified my family as the target of the prophecy."

"So you believe that, in the end, Snape felt some sort of remorse for his actions and wished to set them right with you?"

"I do. I believe that is why he gave me the memories. So that I could understand who he was and what he had done."

Dawlish and Meredith spoke privately for a moment before nodding to each other.

"How did you come to be at Malfoy Manor?"

Harry turned to Ron, knowing that Ron would tell the truth of the story. However, before either Harry or Ron could open their mouths, Hermione spoke up.

"You have heard how frequently Harry uses Voldemort's name." Hermione explained. "Due to our distance from the world, we were unaware that Voldemort's name had become a Taboo. We used the name and were almost immediately surrounded by Snatchers."

While that was true, the part that was missing, and the part that Harry was willing Ron not to speak of was that Ron had discovered this prior to their capture.

When he left.

Again, Ron opened his mouth to speak before Harry grabbed him by the leg, squeezing hard. Instead of speaking, Ron shouted softly, looking at Harry like he was insane. Harry stared hard at his friend, attempting to communicate with a single word and shake of the head.

"Do you wish to add anything, Mr. Weasley?" Meredith asked.

The moment hung in the air for a moment before Ron finally shook his head. "No, ma'am."

"Fine." Dawlish replied. "What about your trip to Gringotts?"

This time, Ron did answer.

"The Cup of Hufflepuff was given to Bellatrix Lestrange to hide in her family Vault. Between the three of us and the goblin Griphook, who we broke out of Malfoy Manor, we came up with a plan to break in and steal the cup."

"And you were successful?"

"We were." Ron confirmed.

"A group of four people broke into Gringotts?" Meredith questioned, her mouth hanging open in shock.

"Yes." Ron answered. "Hermione impersonated Bellatrix Lestrange, granting us access to the vault. While things did not necessarily go as planned, we were able to leave with the Cup."

"And you destroyed it the moment you left the bank?"

"Unfortunately, Griphook took the Sword of Gryffindor as payment for getting us into the Bank. I had intended to allow him to have it _after_ we destroyed all of the Horcruxes but he didn't trust us to deliver on that." Harry replied nervously.

"So you again had a Horcrux but no way to destroy it?" Dawlish said.

"Yes." Harry replied. "We had already destroyed the Locket, using the Sword once it was provided to us. Once we left the Bank, we knew that the only place where we could find something to destroy the Horcruxes was Hogwarts. In the Chamber of Secrets lay the corpse of the basilisk. Its venom, like the sword, was capable of destroying the Horcruxes."

"So, we decided to sneak into the castle." Hermione added. "However, we did not know that the Death Eaters had put Anti-Apparition wards around Hogsmeade. The moment we arrived, sirens and cat-calls started going off. Thankfully, we were given shelter by Aberforth Dumbledore, owner of The Hog's Head."

"From there, we were able to sneak our way into the school." Ron said, continuing the story the others had started. "Unfortunately, The Death Eaters suspected that it was Harry returning to the school so Voldemort brought his troops to the school."

"There were rumors that a large contingent of students were living in a locked room where the Death Eater couldn't get to them." Dawlish said. "Is this true?"

"It was." Harry replied. "That's where the tunnel from Hogsmeade lead us. It was also how the members of The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army made their way into the castle. Once we were inside, we had several tasks. We needed to get the basilisk fangs to destroy the Horcruxes. We had also received information that the Diadem was hidden somewhere inside the school."

"From whom?" Greengrass asked.

"From...Voldemort." Harry answered gently. "The nature of Voldemort's attack on me as a child gave us a sort of...connection. During times of great stress, I could see inside his mind."

"Could he do the same?"

"...Yes." Harry confirmed reluctantly. "The reports that I was having psychotic episodes two year ago were a result of Voldemort unknowingly opening his mind to me. It was also how he convinced me to go to the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries. He showed me an image of my godfather, Sirius Black, being tortured there. Unfortunately, my godfather was killed as a result of my actions."

"But that was also the last time that Voldemort attempted to directly influence Harry's mind." Hermione said, arguing in Harry's defense, knowing that the Ministry would not look kindly upon the idea that Harry had been secretly influenced by Voldemort for years. "Voldemort attempted to possess Harry but found that, for someone who couldn't understand empathy and feeling for others, it was too painful for him."

"I see." Dawlish replied, taking some notes of his own before he spoke again. As he wrote, Meredith spoke up.

"The Cup was destroyed using the Basilisk fangs?"

"Yes." Harry said. "Hermione destroyed it in the Chamber of Secrets."

"You were able to find The Diadem from the Grey Lady, yes?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed.

"It was destroyed using the basilisk fangs?"

"That was the idea." Ron replied. "But a classmate of ours, Vincent Crabbe, attempted to attack us while working for the Death Eaters using Fiendfyre. During the attack, he killed himself and destroyed the Horcrux."

"The snake?"

"Killed by Neville Longbottom using the Sword of Gryffindor." Hermione answered. "The sword, previously owned by Godric Gryffindor, had been charmed that if anyone in need while in the presence of the Sorting Hat, also formerly Gryffindor's, showed outstanding traits of Gryffindor House, the sword would present itself to them. When Neville spoke out against Voldemort, the sword appeared in the hat and Neville used it to behead the snake."

The room appeared as if it was just about finished with their questions. But there was still one thing hanging over the room, one event that Harry was certain people would ask about.

"Mr. Potter," Dawlish said gently. "Multiple eye witness accounts suggest that you were brought out of the Forbidden Forest in the arms of Rubeus Hagrid, dead. Most of these accounts also suggested that you killed Voldemort by trying to Disarm him. Would you care to explain these events to us?"

"The events in the Forest are a bit easier to explain." Harry said, faking a laugh that he certainly did not feel. He knew this was going to be a tricky sell since what Harry was about to tell the Wizengamot was nothing other than a blatant lie.

"Voldemort had issued a cease fire for an hour on the condition that I give myself up to him in the forest. During that hour, I took the opportunity to cast a series of spells and hexes that performed a series of functions. One was a Disillusionment Charm. Another was a combination of charms that made it look like I was standing about five feet to the left of where I actually was. The last was a hex that would make a blinding flash if anyone struck the illusion with a spell."

"Once that was completed, I made my way through the Forbidden Forest underneath my personal Invisibility Cloak. When I reached the grove where Voldemort and his Death Eaters were hiding, I removed my Cloak and entered the grove. Voldemort taunted me briefly and then attempted to kill me. When the Killing Curse struck the illusion that I had cast, the flash blinded all of them long enough for me to assume the place where my body should have fallen and cancel the illusion."

"Narcissa Malfoy was ordered to confirm my death. As she approached, I silently cast a Confundus Charm so that she would believe me to be dead, which is exactly what she told Voldemort. At that point, I had convincingly faked my death enough so that Voldemort would come out of his hole, bringing his snake with him. Thankfully, Neville took care of the snake for me so that I could kill Voldemort."

Harry scanned the room, checking each person to see if they believed his tale. While two or three people seemed like they had questions to ask Harry, no one spoke up. Harry breathed a sigh of relief for the moment.

Now for the second part of his deception.

"Voldemort's death is slightly more convoluted." Harry said as some people around the room chuckled at Harry's weak attempt at a joke. "Fawkes, the phoenix who belonged to Albus Dumbledore, gave out two feathers for wands. One of those wands went to Voldemort, the other went to me."

"So the rumors that your wand was the brother of Voldemort's-"

"Were true." Harry confirmed. "Unfortunately for Voldemort, brother wands don't fight well against each other. So, Voldemort attempted to use other wands to defeat me. First, he used Lucius Malfoy's wand to little effect. Eventually, he heard a rumor that Albus Dumbledore's wand was the Death Stick, the fabled Elder Wand."

"Was there truth to this rumor?"

"Absolutely not but Voldemort was so desperate to kill me that he would have believed anything." Harry lied firmly. "Voldemort took Dumbledore's wand. However, he felt that the wand wasn't serving him properly and that he needed to kill the master of the wand. According to the legend of the Death Stick, the wand may only be passed through murder. That meant that, in Voldemort's eyes, Severus Snape was the owner of the wand. Unfortunately for Voldemort, that simply wasn't true."

"Why not?" Meredith asked.

"Because Dumbledore's wand, like any other wand, recognizes a new master every time its master is defeated like when Draco Malfoy had Disarmed Dumbledore the night of his death. Normally, that would have meant that Malfoy was the owner of the wand. However, I had already Disarmed Malfoy of his own wand weeks earlier at Malfoy Manor. That meant that the owner of Dumbledore's wand was rightfully mine and a wand will never kill its owner. When Voldemort attempted to kill me, I Disarmed him, leaving him defenseless against the rebounding Killing Curse that he had cast."

"Why didn't you simply do this when you were in the Forest?" Dawlish asked.

"Because his snake remained alive. If I had done that to him then, he would have been made into a spectre again and been able to escape. Even if we had been able to kill the snake after the fact, Voldemort would have remained alive and capable of returning. It would have been suicide for anyone, even a large group, to attempt to kill the snake while they were in the Forest. We needed the snake out in the open and the only way to accomplish that was to convince Voldemort that he had won."

Harry and Hermione had spent all morning coming up with a viable cover story for Harry's "death" that didn't involve him actually tell the truth. From what Harry could see, this cover seemed to have worked.

"Do any of the members have any other questions for our witnesses?" Dawlish asked.

No one moved as everyone looked around the room to see if any last second questions would be asked.

"Well, that seems as if it will be it for today." Dawlish replied. "If we have any further questions, we should be able to answer those in a further one-on-one interview. I would like to thank you again for everything that you did and for coming in today."

For the first time all day, Harry breathed deep, relaxing into his chair with his eyes closed as the sounds of people leaving the room filled the air around them. Harry waited for a few moments, hoping that no one would press him for any further information.

Instead, Harry felt a tap on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, Harry saw Hermione standing over him, her bag already over her shoulder and a tired smile on her face.

"Let's go home."

That's exactly what they did. For the rest of the day, Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed at Grimmauld Place. Harry went about making lunch and then dinner for the trio, plus Ginny, while the four of them took the day to simply relax. It was a rare occasion now but it had been something that had been a common occurrence during their last year at Hogwarts together.

As the night wore on, both Ginny and Hermione left the living room to go to bed. That left Harry alone with Ron, each of them sipping gently on some firewhiskey. For awhile, neither of them said much of anything. Instead, they sat in silence, staring at the fire before him.

Eventually, Ron was the one to speak up.

"So what actually happened in the forest?"

"Huh?"

"All that nonsense about some sort of protective charms and all that." Ron scoffed. "I may not be the brightest wizard out there but I know enough to know that was a load of hippogriff shit."

"I know." Harry acknowledged.

"So you admit that it's a lie?"

"It is." Harry nodded gently. Neither of them looked at their other, their eyes locked forward at the flickering flames.

"So what actually happened?"

Harry sighed and then told Ron the same truth that he had told Hermione more than a month earlier. Ron, while certainly unaware of just how connected he and Voldemort had been, did not seem that surprised in the end. When Harry finished telling the tale, they returned to silence once more until Ron broke it with his first question.

"So the connection between you and Him was because of the Horcrux?"

"Yeah." Harry sighed. "It's also what caused my ability to speak Parseltongue."

"What do you mean?"

"I tried talking to a snake the other day. Little garden snake in one of the flower beds outside. But nothing came. I'm certain that ability came from the Horcrux. With it gone, so is Parseltongue."

"Good riddance?"

"Definitely." Harry smirked. "I've had enough of people thinking that I'm some sort of evil sorcerer because I can talk to snakes."

"Sure." Ron said moments before he finished off the drink in his hand. Setting the glass aside, Ron finally turned and looked directly at Harry for the first time all night. "Who else knows?"

Harry hesitated for the briefest of moments and that was all it took for Ron to get his answer.

"When did you tell her?"

"When we were still at The Burrow." Harry whispered. "I didn't intend to tell anyone. But I messed up. I said something I shouldn't have. You know what she's like. She picked up on it right away. I could have lied but I wasn't about to do that."

"Not to her." Ron said, a certain quality in his voice that Harry didn't appreciate.

"I never lied to you." Harry countered, anticipating Ron's primary complaint.

"You just didn't bother to tell your best friend the truth."

"Did you ask?" Harry snapped.

"I was a little busy, you know." Ron said darkly. "Keeping my family from falling apart after Fred died."

"I was there, Ron, I remember." Harry called back, a deep sigh escaping his lips. "I don't want to fight about this right now."

Unfortunately, over the last hour, both Ron and Harry had drank just a bit too much to keep themselves from holding back what they were thinking.

"I was your first friend. I don't care if you don't want to fight about this because we're going to."

"Why?" Harry countered. "So I told Hermione. It's not like I told Neville."

Apparently, Ron wasn't in the mood to have a rational discussion. Instead of responding in a calm, collected manner, Ron threw his glass into the fire, causing flames to rush up the walls in a flash. As they did, Ron had stood, causing the flames to create a rather menacing silhouette on the wall behind him.

"You didn't tell me!"

"I know." Harry replied, his own anger started to bubble over at Ron's ridiculous behavior. "Did you ever think it was because of the times that you acted like this?"

"What? So you can't trust me anymore?"

"You left." Harry said as he stood, his eye coldly staring back at Ron's. "You left her."

"I came back!"

"I'm not having this conversation again." Harry replied. "I thought you understood."

"Clearly, I don't. Explain it to me, since you seem to know everything."

"Get out, Ron." Harry said firmly. "I know you're going through a lot right now. But you're drunk, I'm drunk and you need to deal with whatever else is going on in your life before we even bother trying to get things between us straight."

Ron grabbed Harry by the shirt and pulled him close.

"My brother will always be dead. There's no fixing that. There's no dealing with that."

"Ron, I'm an orphan." Harry said evenly. "I'm aware."

"So why are you telling me, your _friend,_ that I need to _deal_ with it?"

"Because it will be the reality of your life until the day you die." Harry reasoned, slapping Ron's hands away from him. "Everyday you wake up, he'll be dead. Every. Single. Day. There's nothing you can do about it but move on."

"That's easy for you to say. You were one when your parents died. You never knew them."

Harry sighed to him, resigned to the fact that Ron simply was not going to understand what Harry was talking about. Not tonight anyway.

"Go home, Ron."

"I'll go when I'm ready."

With a swift move, Harry grabbed his wand from its holster on his wrist and banished Ron, throwing him back several feet. Ron never left his feet and appeared to suffer no damage from the "attack," but Harry could tell that Ron had been sent over the edge by Harry's spell.

Unfortunately for Ron, he was also drunk, less talented than Harry and much less prepared. While he tried to reach into his pocket to get out his wand, Harry hexed Ron, placing him in a Full Body Bind. Just before Ron's body teetered off to the side, Harry levitated a chair just behind him so that when he fell, he fell into the chair.

Harry kneeled in front of Ron, saddened by what he had done but knowing that there was no other way. He also knew that there was no other way to say what needed to be said at the moment.

"Ron, I'm going to talk and you're going to listen. Then, I'm going to release this hex and you are going to leave."

Ron murmured something that sounded like an approval.

"I don't want to hurt you but there's no other way." Harry muttered, almost to himself. "Ron, you are the only person in your family that hasn't started down the path of moving on. I'm not suggesting that it will be easy or that it will be a short road but you will never know until you actually start down that path. You are my oldest friend but right now, I don't want to be your friend. You are mean and jealous and broken in...a thousand different ways. I know why. Trust me, I do. But I am still dealing with my own guilt in everything that we did. I question everything we did. Every decision we made, every action we took: everything. It weighs on me constantly and right now, I can't have someone like you in my life."

"You said that I lied to my best friend. I didn't. I told Hermione the truth." Harry said, tears forming gently in his eyes as he saw the look of betrayal on Ron's face. "That's your problem, Ron. You've always viewed friendship as a competition and it just isn't. But there's a certain amount of loyalty and support that leads to someone being your best friend. Hermione has provided that to me. You haven't. I'm working really hard to be a better friend to Hermione. She deserves it after everything she's been through for me. Right now, you don't deserve that effort."

Harry paused for a moment, considering that he might have more to say. Instead, he waved his wand and Ron sank into the chair. Whereas Harry had expected Ron to launch himself from the chair and attack him, Ron did nothing.

He just sat.

"Ron?"

"This is how it ends?"

"I'm hoping not." Harry said honestly. "I'm hoping that we can both make things right again some day. But I have things to work through and so do you and neither of us are in a good place to support the other while we do that."

"Right."

Ron stood, brushed himself off and then turned and walked out of the room, through the kitchen and to the front door, Harry just behind him the whole time. Ron grabbed the handle of the door, turned it and then stopped.

"If you need me, you know how to reach me."

"Same to you."

With that, Ron Weasley walked out the door, leaving Harry standing in the doorway, wondering whether he had helped his friend or simply sent him down a path of further destruction. Harry had spent years thinking of others before himself. Now that he was clearly trying to help himself first, he couldn't say he thought much of it at all.


	14. Fourteen

_A/N: Happy Holidays everyone! As a little pre-Christmas gift, I am posting the next chapter earlier than expected. I would like to thank everyone that's reviewed this story so far. I really appreciate all the wonderful things that you've had to say, even if you're just "awaiting more." Please keep letting me know what you think!_

* * *

The next week passed quietly at Grimmauld Place. The mid-July heat reached nearly boiling temperatures and even with magic to help them, Harry, Ginny and Hermione spent most of their days simply sitting near a window, praying to Merlin for a breeze. The old house had some climate charms that Harry and Hermione spent a few hours trying to fix before giving up, simply casting a Cooling Charm on whatever room they happened to be in at the time.

Meanwhile, Ginny seemed to be spending more and more time with Neville. In fact, there was a period of nearly three days where she didn't make an appearance at Grimmauld Place. Considering how conservative Augusta Longbottom was, Harry doubted that she was staying at Longbottom Manor.

Or at least, she wasn't staying there with the matron's knowledge.

Just over a week after Ron's outburst, Harry received a letter from Minerva McGonagall requesting entrance to Grimmauld Place the following day for a meeting with Bill and Fleur. Harry responded suggesting they go to Hogwarts instead. For some reason, McGonagall declined Harry's request which is how the four of them ended up seated at Harry's dinner table, sweating profusely.

Despite the heat, McGonagall still wore her typical professor's garb: black robes that fell all the way to the floor with her hair pulled back into a bun. While Bill, Fleur and Harry all looked miserable in the heat, you could have been convinced that it was a perfect day if you looked at McGonagall, who looked completely unaffected despite the weight of her garb.

Harry secretly suspected that she had some sort of Cooling Charm cast on her clothing but had no interest in inquiring the validity of his suspicions.

"Good morning, Potter." McGonagall said firmly. "The purpose of this meeting is to come to an understanding of the nature of your agreement with the school. As I previously stated, Bill and Fleur have signed on to teach Defense for the following year. After that year is finished, Bill will turn over his half of the teaching duties to you for one year while you finish some required continuing education. Once that year is finished, the position will be yours full time."

"You said something about continuing education? What is that?"

"It is required that any person who wishes to become a Hogwarts professor spend at least one year either working in their field or continuing their education in the field. Since you will be working as an apprentice professor, the amount of research that you will have to do to fill that requirement will be much less than typically required."

"That's nice." Harry chuckled.

"It will still likely be more work than you've ever had to do before." McGonagall countered. "You will take three classes: Defense, Charms and Transfiguration. You will be required to get NEWTs in all three in order to continue. In addition to those duties, you will begin your assistant duties by working with either Bill or Fleur in teaching the first and second year Defense classes."

"Nothing like a light caseload."

"You've spent years worrying about a Dark wizard trying to kill you while also getting largely unremarkable grades." Bill commented. "It will be interesting to see what you do with the ability to actually focus on your schoolwork."

Harry hadn't actually considered the fact that Voldemort's presence may have impacted his schoolwork. It made sense. Even when he was trying to simply be a normal, fifteen-year-old child, there was always something hanging over him.

"So three classes and first and second year Defense teaching. Anything else?" Harry asked, almost joking. If he had known what McGonagall was going to say next, he may not have been joking.

"You will be Head Boy." McGonagall replied.

"Really?"

"Yes. It is not an option either." McGonagall added when she noticed the look of apprehension on his face. "It should be a comfort to know that Miss Granger will be named Head Girl so you will not be alone in your responsibilities."

"Which are?"

"The supervision of the school prefects, assisting the professors with various duties and on the rarest of occasions, monitoring detentions."

"Monitoring detentions? You do realize that I spent most of my last year at Hogwarts in detention with Snape."

"Professor Snape." McGonagall insisted, giving Harry a distinct case of deja vu. Looking across the table, McGonagall noticed Harry's reaction and gave the smallest of smiles. "Albus and I disagreed on a great many things. Respect for your instructors, regardless of your hatred for them, was not one of them, especially since it was clear that Albus knew more about Severus than either you or I. In any case, I trust that you will be a model student this year."

"I will do my best."

"I expect nothing less." McGonagall replied. "Now, you will be happy to know that as Head Boy, you will be granted lodging separate from the rest of the students."

"Is that a tradition? I thought Percy stayed in Gryffindor Tower."

"It is an option granted to both the Headmaster and the student chosen at the time. When Percy was selected as Head Boy, Albus chose to have him remain in Gryffindor Tower so that he could keep an eye on things."

"He was spying on me." Harry replied, immediately knowing the truth.

"Not just you." McGonagall countered. "He was to inform the Headmaster if he noticed anything out of the ordinary. I will not be asking the same of you or Ms. Granger. You will both be granted special lodgings in the Headmaster's Tower. Your beds will remain in Gryffindor Tower should you choose to spend your time there as well."

"I imagine I will but having the extra place to go will certainly give me some space if I need it." Harry commented. "Thank you, Headmistress."

McGonagall considered Harry for a moment, almost as if there was something else she wished to add before thinking better of it. She then reached into her bag and pulled out a familiar envelope which she passed to Harry.

"Your Hogwarts letter." McGonagall said as she passed him the letter. "Per usual, you will find your list of required texts and materials."

"Thanks." Harry said, setting the letter aside, knowing mostly what it would say.

"With that, I have nothing further to discuss with you. However, I believe that Bill has a matter he wishes to address."

"Really?" Harry asked, turning to Bill. "What is it?"

"My brother." Bill said sadly as McGonagall and Fleur stood.

"With that, I bid you farewell." McGonagall said. "I look forward to seeing you at the beginning of term. Until then, Mr. Potter, take a break."

"I have been." Harry smirked, nodding to the Headmistress as she left the room, followed shortly by Fleur.

With the two ladies gone, only Bill and Harry remained in the room, seated opposite each other at the kitchen table. Neither spoke as Bill stared at the table in front of him. Harry wasn't certain if he had ever seen Bill look so forlorn or lost but it was clear that something was weighing on his mind.

"I need you to tell me what you said to my brother."

"Why?"

"Because a week ago, Ron showed up at Shell Cottage with no explanation. Even still, a week later, he has yet to give us a reason. We both know that this isn't the first time this has happened, regardless of what you neglected to tell the Wizengamot."

The reference to Ron's departure during the Horcrux Hunt caused Harry's ears to perk up. Obviously, Bill knew more of the truth than most due to Ron's arrival at Shell Cottage. Clearly, Bill was drawing a line between that appearance and this one, which was a parallel that Harry understood well.

"I didn't want Ron to have to endure the public pressure that would have come about if it had somehow slipped that he had left us while we were trying to stop Voldemort."

"And I appreciate that." Bill assured Harry. "I honestly do. While I never got the full picture of why he left you and Hermione, I know my brother well enough to read him and he clearly feels like he's done something wrong. I also know him well enough to know that he likely _has_ done something wrong. What I don't know is what he did. I also know that he reacted the way he did because you said something to him."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I asked you what you said and rather than denying you said anything, you asked why I needed to know." Bill replied. "Clever trick I learned from working with Kingsley over the years. Even if you don't get the answer you're looking for, an answer at all will tell you something."

"Well played." Harry admitted. "Before I tell you what I said, I want to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"How is he?"

Bill was clearly not expecting that question and looked to be a little surprised that Harry had even bothered to ask. What Bill didn't know was that, like Bill had done to Harry, whatever answer Bill gave would certainly prove his point.

"He's…." Bill hesitated, clearly uncertain of exactly what to say. "I think he believes that no one notices-"

"That he's falling apart?"

"Yes." Bill agreed. "I've heard him shouting in his sleep on more than one occasion in the last week. Every time we see something or say something or do anything really that reminds him of Fred, it's like a cloud forms over his head for the rest of the day. He can't seem to shake it."

"That's exactly what I told him." Harry confirmed. "I know he's probably a bit upset at me but I couldn't sit by and let him avoid his problems while also treating me a bit like dirt."

"How?"

"I-I can't explain the exact details." Harry said apologetically. "But I can say that I told Hermione something very private. I hadn't intended to tell anyone but she caught me in a position where I couldn't afford to lie to her."

"Ron found out that you told her first." Bill said, immediately understanding.

"Yes. His reaction was pretty much exactly what you would expect." Harry replied. "Ron feels like I can only have one best friend. The truth is that for a long time, I had two."

"But then he left."

"He did." Harry confirmed. "He has apologized to both Hermione and I for it. Almost immediately, he told us how much he regretted it and how much he wanted to come back. I can certainly forgive him for his error-"

"But you can't forget it." Bill finished. "I understand that."

"I don't want to push him away, Bill." Harry said, pleading his case to Bill so that he would understand. While Bill had been the last of the Weasley siblings that he had met, Harry had always felt that he had a connection with the oldest Weasley. It was important to Harry, especially since they would spend the next year working together, that Bill understood why he had done what he had done and said what he said. "I know the hurt that he's going through. But right now, I can't have him around. He's stopped seeing things from anyone's point of view but his."

"And that's full of pain and anguish at the moment." Bill added with an understanding nod. "I get it. I understand. For some reason, he's taken Fred's death harder than anyone. Even George has started trying to put his life back in order."

"George was willing to try. Ron is stuck. We both know that life continues to move on, whether we want it or not. Slowly, we're each finding our way back to a normal life. It's not going to be easy. Hell, it probably won't really work for another few years or so but the longer he refuses to move, the more likely he is to remain stuck forever. He'll become Snape, stuck in a past that moved on without him."

"Merlin knows we don't need that." Bill chuckled. "If he ever reaches out to you, will you listen to him?"

"Always." Harry replied. "He's my oldest friend and I'm really hoping that we can pick up the pieces of our friendship. I just can't be around him right now. I still wake up in the middle of the night and check on Hermione and Ginny, terrified that someone broke in and killed them while we were sleeping. That's assuming I sleep at all."

"Harry, you have never once looked out for yourself before someone else. There is no need to feel guilty. Ron has other people that can support him, so do you. I just hope that you and Ron can patch things up down the road."

"You and me both."

Later that evening, Harry sat in the Black family library, looking out the massive picture window at the people that walked in front of Grimmauld Place. It was a relatively busy evening on the street as was typical for a Friday night just outside of downtown London. As the night went on the crowds would continue to grow but Harry wouldn't notice them as Hermione entered the library and took a seat next to him.

"How was your meeting this morning?"

"Relatively uneventful." Harry replied. "McGonagall told me that my life is going to be a chaotic hell and that I won't have a life outside of the classroom."

"Why are you complaining? Normally, if you had something to worry about outside of the classroom, it was a homicidal maniac trying to kill you."

"Well, I'm glad that I don't have that to worry about but I was kind of hoping that I would have some time to relax."

"You'll have had four whole months since the Battle when the term starts. That's plenty of time. Plus, if Ginny and I both go to school and you stayed behind, you would be bored."

"You're not wrong." Harry chuckled. "Bill also wanted to talk about Ron."

Almost immediately, Hermione's mood shifted. While Ron and Hermione had supposedly talked things out, Harry had never bothered to ask what exactly they had said. The only thing that Harry had noticed in Hermione was that anytime someone mentioned Ron, she seemed to actively be biting her tongue. Obviously, his behavior at the Burrow still weighed heavily on her mind.

But this seemed different. Harry had told Hermione the basics of what had occurred himself and Ron a week earlier but Harry suspected that she knew more than she let on.

"What is it, Hermione?"

"Nothing." Hermione said, her mouth barely opening because of her clenched jaw.

"Hermione…."

"It's nothing." Hermione repeated, not convincing Harry in the least. In response, Harry just sat and stared at her. When it became clear that he was not going to let this go, Hermione huffed.

"I just don't want to talk about him." Hermione finally responded. "He has some growing up that he needs to do."

"Don't we all?" Harry smiled. When Hermione glared at him so forcefully that he was worried his glasses would break, that smile faded. "Listen, I'm not going to apologize for him. But we were both forced to grow up quicker than he was. We were immediately thrown into a world that we didn't know with no one but each other. I mean, we had Dumbledore watching us but it's not like he was around too often or really a part of our lives."

"What's your point, Harry?" Hermione asked with skepticism.

"Ron had his family. It's something that neither of us had. I know your parents are still alive but they don't really understand our world. We only had ourselves to rely on. We've been adults since we were thirteen years old. Ron will get there. But he's trying to do that while he's grieving for Fred. He's got to finish one before he can start the other."

Hermione considered Harry for a moment, a strange look on her face.

"When did you grow up?" Hermione asked.

"Excuse me?" Harry said with a smirk.

"I mean, it's nice talking to you about things like this but it's not something that I typically expected from you."

"I guess it was just time. Do I wish that I had a normal childhood? Certainly. But I know that looking back and acting like a child isn't going to bring that part of my life back. So, I can still act like a buffoon sometimes, sure, but I want to be someone that people can rely on and not simply because I can curse everything into oblivion."

"Although you are particularly good at that."

"I'm aware." Harry grinned.

"You're probably right."

"I know it's not as frequent an occurrence as you being right but it does happen."

"Shut up." Hermione said as she rolled her eyes. "We did have a bit of a weird childhood, didn't we?"

"We did and for the most part, I wouldn't take any of it back."

"For the most part?" Hermione asked.

"There is one thing that I wish I had been able to have growing up." Harry admitted.

"What?"

"A normal birthday party."

"What do you mean? We had all those parties with the Weasleys."

"I know but those were basically family parties. Before I went to Hogwarts, my classmates at school always had these parties where they invited the whole class, except for me, of course. Because of the fact that I was effectively in hiding during the summers, I never got to experience something like that."

"Would you have even liked that? You aren't exactly a fan of large groups."

"I think with the right group of people, it could be a good time."

"You mean like...Dumbledore's Army?" Hermione said, a sudden change in her smile that made Harry wary.

"I suppose." Harry replied suspiciously.

"Alright, let me take care of it."

"Hermione?"

"It's time that you've had the party that you want. We have five days before your birthday. Do you think we can get the rest of this place cleaned up by then?"

Harry had never once considered that they would have an actual party. But it was clear based on the look on Hermione's face, that she was already in the process of planning it. So, Harry simply nodded his agreement and got to work.

Over the next five days while Harry and Ginny worked to finish the remaining cleanup of Grimmauld Place, Hermione locked herself in the library. Firstly, she somehow managed to send a group invitation to everyone who possessed a working coin and had survived the war, a task that sounded intensely complicated. Then, Hermione worked out how to allow everyone to Apparate to Grimmauld Place without learning the name of the location. It involved some sort of temporary loophole in the Fidelius Charm that had been set on Grimmauld Place, something only a Secret Keeper could have done. The eventual solution was simply having everyone Apparate to a separate location and then taking them by Side-Along Apparition into the house, allowing them access without granting them permanent access to the house.

That's how it came to be that on eight o'clock on July 31, 1998, nearly two dozen people suddenly appeared in the entrance of Grimmauld Place. Almost immediately, Harry was greeted by a rush of people, each of them congratulating them on his birthday and tossing gifts into his arms. Harry's eyes darted through the room, looking for one specific person.

But unfortunately, Ron Weasley was nowhere to be seen. Harry knew that Ron was upset with him but Harry had hoped that Ron would put in a small appearance. Hermione had sent Ron a letter the day before, asking if he would be attending. She had received no reply and when Ginny had asked Bill about it, Bill said that he hadn't heard anything about the party from Ron.

"He'll come around." George said, noticing Harry scanning the room. "We all deal with tragedy in different ways. Ron's always been a bit of a tosser so I suppose it would be a bit too much to ask if he would act like an adult."

"I know." Harry replied, only barely hiding his disappointment. "I had just hoped-"

"Like I said, he'll come around. Give him time. He didn't deal with things right away like the rest of us did. He buried it until he cracked." George said, interrupting Harry. "Now, go put those packages down and greet the rest of your guests."

"Yes, sir." Harry said mockingly.

Doing exactly as he was told, Harry took his gifts upstairs to his room before coming back down the stairs. By the time Harry had gotten back down to the two main levels of the house, the crowd had already separated with a large group of people in the ground floor's study and a second smaller group gathered in the anteroom just outside of the Black Family Library, which had been magically sealed to prevent anyone from entering.

There was dark magic in that room that no one ever needed to learn about and Harry wasn't about to have one of his friends accidentally exposed to it.

In the study, Harry was pleased to see that Ernie MacMillan had already started the party off right. A bottle of Ogden's Firewhiskey in his hand, Ernie began the dramatic retelling of Harry's defeat of the Hungarian Horntail. Of course, in Ernie's version, Harry cursed the dragon into a thousand little pieces and then shouted an expletive-laden tirade in the direction of Ludo Bagman while fending off advances from every girl at Hogwarts.

For some reason, Harry didn't seem to remember it exactly that way but at the moment, he wasn't going to bother to correct the former Hufflepuff.

Looking around the room, Harry was pleased to see that a large percentage of Dumbledore's Army had come. In this particular room, he noticed Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson standing in the corner, watching Ernie with rapt attention. Standing next to them were George, Ginny and Lee Jordan, all of whom seemed to be mocking Ernie's highly embellished story. Neville sat in a chair in front of Ginny, her hand absent-mindedly sitting on his shoulder. The two looked as if they had been together forever, which considering the time they had spent together over the last year at Hogwarts, was at least partially true.

For a moment, Harry felt a small tinge of guilt for having slept with Ginny earlier in the summer. But it disappeared when Harry remembered that they had not been dating at the time and that Ginny had been the one to initiate the encounter. Now, Harry watched the two of them and couldn't be happier for the two of them and what appeared to be a very happy relationship.

Finally, on the far side of the room, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones shared the couch, all of them sharing another bottle of some sort of magical whiskey that Harry wasn't familiar with. What surprised Harry was that while Justin appeared to be quite interested in Susan, both Hannah and Susan seemed to be far more interested in each other.

When Ernie got to his dramatic (and largely incorrect) tale of Harry's duel with Severus Snape after the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, Harry decided to see what was going on in the rest of the house. Harry marched up the stairs to the anteroom outside of the Black Family Library where it seemed that the rest of the partygoers had gathered.

However, before Harry could assess who was in the room, he noticed Cho marching towards him, a strange look on her face.

"Cho?"

It had been just under a week since they had seen each other last. The day after Harry's testimony with Ron and Hermione to the Wizengamot, Harry and Cho had met for a second "not-date" at a much more relaxed Muggle restaurant in Westminster. The night, much like the first one, had gone well with Harry feeling far more comfortable with Cho now than he had ever felt during their years at Hogwarts.

The night had ended, once again, in front of Cho's apartment with a brief kiss from Cho before she disappeared inside.

Now, she approached Harry with a look of annoyance. True, he had been busy over the last week and only managed a very brief conversation with her through Floo Powder two days earlier but Harry didn't see why that would be a cause for annoyance during this, the very informal stages of their relationship.

"I need your help." Cho said as she approached Harry. Almost immediately, Harry noticed that Cho had locked her hands behind his head, pulling her much closer than normal.

"With what?"

"This."

Cho leaned forward and kissed Harry. But this was unlike any kiss that they had ever shared. It wasn't simple or gentle like the others. This was deep and passionate with Cho's hands running through Harry's hair as her tongue grazed his lips, causing Harry to moan ever so slightly in surprise.

When they finally broke apart, Harry realized that he literally hadn't breathed and quickly attempted to drain the room of air.

"What the hell was that?" Harry whispered in her ear.

"Look just over my shoulder." Cho whispered back. Harry did as she instructed and immediately saw Michael Corner staring at the pair of them, mouth agape with shock.

"I assume he was bothering you."

"We all had to gather about thirty minutes before we arrived to ensure that we could also successfully make the trip. From the moment he saw me, he's been leaving extremely thinly veiled hints about how much he misses me."

"So you used me to get him off your back?" Harry accused her, slightly hurt that she would do such a thing.

"No." Cho responded, her lips grazing Harry's ear as she spoke, sending chills down his spine. "I kissed you because it's your birthday and I wanted to kiss you. It just had the added effect of getting him off my back."

"Well, I suppose I can get behind that." Harry replied. "You know that this is going to start the relationship rumor mill."

"I'm alright with that if you are." Cho answered firmly.

"Really? What about our _not-dates_?"

"Well, looking back, they were probably dates, weren't they?"

"If you say so." Harry grinned.

Harry knew that neither of them were ready for a truly committed relationship. There would be no staying the night at the other's place or visits to meet Cho's father in the near future. But there was a start in that moment, a place they could move forward from as each of them tried to navigate a post-Voldemort world.

For now, that was all Harry could give to another person and certainly all he was willing to ask in return.

Harry took Cho by the hand and lead her back to the couch where they sat, Harry's arm over Cho's shoulders and her head rested on his shoulder. Looking around the room, Harry was glad to see a strange collection of people off in the far corner, clearly in some sort of animated discussion. Finally, when Seamus shouted that "THEY SHOULD NEVER CANCEL QUIDDITCH AT HOGWARTS!," Harry understood exactly what they were talking about.

Apparently, Hermione had been regaling Seamus and Dean with her plan to request that Professor McGonagall cancel Quidditch for the upcoming year in order to help build comradery between the houses. While Harry didn't necessarily disagree with her plan, suggesting it to Seamus was probably not her best idea.

Parvati and Padma stood with Luna and watched the tirade from their Irish friend, who then launched a twenty minute soliloquy about how the Irish would have never won the Quidditch World Cup without the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. When he finally got to the part about how the honor of the Irish people would be tarnished without the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup, Dean told him to shut up, which caused a brief but quite interesting duel between the two which ended with Seamus tied to the rafters above them, hanging upside and shouting for someone to cut him free.

Someone eventually did, about twenty-five minutes later.

The night got particularly interesting once the firewhiskey made it out of Ernie's hands and into everyone else's. In fact, as the night went on, someone must have left Grimmauld Place to gather more drinks but by that point, Harry was no longer concerned about the security of his home. Instead, he was more worried about trying to stay upright while the rest of his friends challenged him to mock duels in the third floor Atrium that Harry had installed earlier in the week.

The room was massive. Originally, there had been four bedrooms on the top floor of the Black ancestral home. However, Harry had demolished all of the bedrooms on that floor, leaving only Sirius' intact, which he was now slowly working on turning into his own master bedroom. In place of these bedrooms, Harry had cleared out the walls, creating a massive open air room with a newly installed glass ceiling that allowed Harry to look out onto the city around him. Most of the buildings that surrounded Grimmauld Place were only two stories tall. Coupled with the two-story Atrium and viewing catwalk that Harry had created, it gave for a wonderful view of downtown London.

The duels had started with George had challenged Harry, saying that he knew that he could defeat the man who had killed Voldemort. Normally, Harry would have declined but after four shots of Ogden's, Harry was ready to go. The stakes were set: the winner would take a shot of Ogden's, the loser would take two.

Within thirty seconds, George lay flat on his back, the result of a well-placed Banishing spell that had thrown him across the room.

Neville had been the next to try his hand. Again, it had taken Harry less than a minute to disarm Neville, whose list of skills was impressive but was also taught to him entirely by Harry.

Katie, Angelina and Alicia had attempted to take him down in turn. Only when they worked together were they even able to challenge Harry, who still managed to stop them, albeit by cheating slightly when he cast a Confundus Charm on Angelina who then Stunned Alicia.

When Hermione challenged him, she hadn't had anything to drink all evening and Harry was at least nine shots deep. While Hermione was the first to defeat Harry, it had taken her nearly five minutes to do so and was greatly aided by the fact that Harry could barely stand up.

As the night slowly transitioned into the early morning, Harry proclaimed that anyone that was too drunk to Apparate home was free to stay in one of his extra bedrooms. Almost immediately, Harry noticed that the crowd started to dwindle as people either left or disappeared into the floors below where the rest of the bedrooms were.

After Harry's defeat at the hands of Hermione, Harry had simply remained on the floor for nearly an hour with Cho at his side, both of them sharing a rather tasty bottle of Griffin Reserve, a kind of wizarding rum said to be based off of the ferocity of the griffin. In truth, it was simply a very powerful rum and if it's only job was getting a person drunk, then Griffin Reserve was excellent at its job.

The last thing that Harry remembered as he awoke the next morning was Cho eventually picking them up off the floor and dragging Harry to his room. In his mind, Harry recalled Cho placing a gentle kiss on his lips before Harry passed out.

But as Harry rolled over, he realized there must have been something just slightly off with his memory. Harry's bed was large, which gave him the ability to roll back and forth, something he did frequently when trying to fall asleep. So, when the sun hit his face in the morning, Harry decided to try and go back to sleep, rolling over in the process.

Only, he couldn't roll over. He couldn't roll over because there was something in the way. He couldn't roll over because there was a very naked Cho Chang in his bed.


	15. Fifteen

Harry racked his brain, trying his best to remember how the previous night ended. More specifically, how Cho ended up in his bed. For nearly five minutes, Harry lay there, staring at the ceiling with Cho's arm draped across his chest, doing his damndest to figure it out.

Finally, he remembered. The kiss that Harry had remembered had actually been from _after_ Harry and Cho's romp. Cho had picked up Harry from the floor of the atrium and took him across the hall to his bed. From there, Harry's memory skipped ahead to a brief image of Cho slowly and seductively taking off each individual item of clothing that she wore.

After that, all Harry could remember were a series of sensations: Cho's body, slick with sweat, rubbing up against his, her lips trailing kisses down his neck and onto his chest, her hands roaming over his body.

"You going to make it?"

The sound of Cho's voice caused him to jump. He had been completely unaware that she was awake and staring at him intensely as he clearly tried to figure out what was going on.

"Hi." Harry said, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling.

"You're freaking out a bit, aren't you?"

"A bit, yes." Harry confirmed.

"You ever done this before?"

"Once." Harry replied. "Why? Was I that bad?"

"No. It's just that you kept asking if I was alright." Cho replied. Although he wasn't looking at her, he could hear the amusement in her voice. "I swear to Merlin, you must have asked me twenty times if you were allowed to touch me."

"That's good, right?"

"Yes, Harry, that's good." Cho answered, her hand finally cradling Harry's chin, turning it so that he would look at her. "We were both drunk. You could have been trying to take advantage of me but even when you were drunk, you wanted to know that I was okay. That says a lot about what kind of person you are."

"I don't remember much. Just some images." Harry replied. "I like you, Cho. I just wish that if we were going to do this, our first time would have been a bit more...sober."

"Well, then why don't I refresh your memory and we can both think of ourselves a bit better?"

"Excuse me?"

Suddenly, Cho rolled, throwing her leg over top of Harry until her naked form rested on top of Harry. Almost immediately, his body reacted which elicited a gentle groan from Cho.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

Cho rolled her eyes. "Harry, if you don't take me right here and now, I'm going to leave. Now, fuck me."

Cho's use of such aggressive language shocked Harry for a moment. But, when Cho rocked her hips forward, Harry was suddenly reminded of what his exact directive was. With a cocky smirk, Harry nodded his head.

"Yes, ma'am." Harry growled, thrusting himself inside Cho, who groaned with pleasure. Unlike the last two times that Harry had experienced this sensation, there was no guilt and no regret associated with it. Instead, he simply explored every single inch of skin that Cho had, making sure that not a single part of her body felt unloved.

When they finished a little more than ten minutes later, Cho got up to use Harry's shower. Unlike earlier when Harry couldn't bother to look Cho in the eyes, he watched her get up and go, following every curve with his eyes. The last second before she closed the door, Cho's eyes locked with Harry's. She had known that he was looking and was certainly not discouraging it.

Things certainly were much different this morning than they had been just the night before. Curious to see what state the rest of the house was in, Harry got dressed before letting Cho know that he would be in the kitchen, making breakfast.

On the floor below, Harry noticed that each of the door to each of the four bedrooms was closed, something that was not typically the case unless someone was using the room. Deciding to let everyone sleep, Harry marched by the rooms. As he did, he heard the sounds of someone performing a very similar dance to the one that he and Cho had just finished minutes before. While he didn't dawdle long, he did distinctly hear someone crying out the name "Hannah!" followed by another distinct female sounding voice.

Whether or not it was Susan, Harry couldn't be sure but it did seem as if his suspicions from the previous night were at least partially correct.

When Harry got to the ground floor of the house, he saw Ernie and Padma snuggled on the couch, fast asleep. Harry had never known either of them to be that close while they were at school. That's when Harry remembered that he had been gone for a year and a lot of things changed during that year.

Going to the kitchen, Harry withdrew some bacon and eggs from the refrigerator. He threw nearly two pounds of bacon into a variety of pans before throwing them into the oven. Normally, he would have cooked them on the stove-top but knowing the number of people that he was likely feeding, he simply didn't have the time for that.

At the same time, he was working on fixing up nearly two dozen eggs covered in cheese with some fried potatoes tossed in for good measure. The smells of the food clearly made its way through the house as one by one people started making their way to the kitchen.

Not surprisingly, Hermione was the first person down the stairs. While she had certainly looked better, whatever small amount of alcohol she had consumed the previous night did not seem to have the same kind of effect that it had on Harry.

The next person down the stairs was Cho, which made for an incredibly awkward situation when she appeared at the bottom of the stairs wearing only an old Quidditch jersey of Harry's. Clearly, she had been expecting to be alone with Harry, forgetting that Hermione lived with Harry regardless of anyone else appearing.

And appear they did. The first couple to enter the kitchen was George and Alicia. Neither looked like they had slept much. When the first pot of coffee finished, both of them grabbed mugs as large as Harry's head and began to down the black nectar.

The next group that appeared looked slightly better off. Ernie quite literally escorted Padma to the kitchen, pulling her chair out for her. Harry's guess was that the two didn't really know each other that well. Regardless of whether they had slept together or not, Ernie was doing his best to be a gentleman.

Harry was pretty much the only person that wasn't surprised when Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, best friends for years, walked down the stairs hand in hand. When they saw that the room was highly focused on them, Hannah started to explain themselves before Susan simply grabbed her and kissed her in front of the whole room. When they separated, Susan turned back to everyone else.

"Any questions?"

Immediately, the whole room burst into laughter which confused the last two couples, Katie and Lee along with Ginny and Neville, who hadn't seen the ladies' display of affection. As Harry finished up breakfast and started passing around plates and food, he realized just how "normal" this was. They were friends that had gone to a big party the night before and now, a little hungover (or possibly still drunk), they sat around the dinner table and shared an awkward breakfast.

It was among the most normal things that Harry could remember in his life and while it wasn't necessarily that memorable, Harry knew that the memory of the morning would always make him smile. For nearly an hour, the group sat around the table, each of them quietly updating the others on their lives since the Battle of Hogwarts.

None of Harry's previous classmates were returning to school, a fact that surprised Harry until he remembered that they had already experienced their seventh year at Hogwarts, hellish though it may have been. Ernie was joining Ron and Neville in the Auror Academy, which started the very same day that Hogwarts went back to school. Susan, following in the footsteps of her aunt, was joining the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, working as an aide to an internal investigator, the same position her aunt Amelia had originally occupied as well.

Katie Bell continued to train, hoping that one of the tryouts that she had arranged around England and Scotland would get her a position with a professional Quidditch team. Meanwhile, Angelina had been hired by the Wimbourne Wasps. She was working as an instructor of flying techniques. Already, she was considered one of the best assistant managers in the league. There were rumors flying around that she would be hired as a head manager of a team within the next year.

Lee had been hired by George and was working to get the business back up and running again after several months off during the Weasley's time on the run. While the Wheezes was still struggling, George seemed optimistic that things were finally looking up for the joke business.

Of everyone there, Hannah was the only one who didn't seem to be sure what she was doing moving forward. Most of that likely had to due with the fact that her father was still struggling with the murder of Hannah's mother two years prior. According to Hannah, her father had already been checked into a Muggle psychiatric facility after he had attempted to take his own life. She was further behind in her studies than most considering she had missed most of her sixth year, something that Snape had done nothing to rectify during his time as Headmaster. When Harry suggested that Hannah return to Hogwarts, he was met with a surprising number of jeers.

It was Katie who had best stated the consensus of the room.

"Hogwarts is over. Without Dumbledore, the place is going to go downhill fast."

When Harry relayed that he and Hermione were returning to school, the jeers stopped almost immediately.

"Why?" Ernie asked.

"Because McGonagall offered me the Defense post after I've finished the school required for it."

"The position is cursed." Angelina countered.

"It was cursed by Voldemort. It's fine now." Harry replied. "Bill and Fleur are taking the job for the next couple of years and then the job is mine."

"But why would you want to go back to Hogwarts? Without Dumbledore, I mean." Angelina questioned. "You were his favorite."

"That's one reason I want to go back." Harry admitted. "Dumbledore gave his life for me. But he also gave his life for Hogwarts. He dedicated everything he had to that school. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of his generation and Hogwarts is his legacy."

"But the school has certainly seen better days. There are roughly half the number of students from when Mum and Dad went." George replied. "Things were going downhill even before Dumbledore died."

"Do you think that was because of Dumbledore or Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"What does Voldemort have to do with it?"

"Voldemort affected everything. Even in the years that he was gone, his followers, people like Lucius Malfoy, poisoned every system in our society. From everything I can see, we never recovered between Voldemort's years of terror. We just waited. Not to mention the fact that our population too a huge hit. Do you know the number of people that were killed by Voldemort in the seventies? The numbers are staggering. That's why enrollment was so low. Voldemort literally killed off a significant portion of our population over thirty years."

"How would you know?" Ernie asked. "It's not like you were raised by wizards."

Harry chuckled. "You see, Ernie, they invented these things a couple centuries ago called books. You should open one once in awhile."

The room howled as Ernie's face turned red. Once everyone settled down, Harry said his final word on the subject.

"If we let people continue to poison our society, then certainly Hogwarts and eventually the Ministry will fall. But from the day after the Battle and for the next thirty years, it is up to us to affect the kind of change that ensures that day will never come."

Suddenly, an owl came flying into the room, dropping a letter in front of Harry. Almost immediately, Harry recognized the seal of the Ministry of Magic. As Harry opened the letter, the rest of the group started to disperse, leaving only Harry, Cho and Hermione sitting at the table while Harry read his letter to himself.

 _Mr. Harry James Potter,_

 _Please present yourself to the Ministry of Magic for initial questioning in the trial in the matter of The Ministry of Magic against Amycus Carrow, Antonin Dolohov, Gregory Goyle Sr, Fenrir Greyback, Samuel Jugson, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, William Mulciber Jr, William Mulciber Sr, Augustus Rookwood, Dolores Umbridge, & Corbin Yaxley on August 6, 1998 at 7:00 AM. Questioning is expected to last at least fifteen minutes per defendant. Understand that if any of the above defendant are arraigned by the Tribunal, further questioning and/or testimony may be required._

 _Robert Robinson  
Head of the Death Eater Tribunal_

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"I got my summons to go testify in front of the Tribunal." Harry replied. "I've got to report next Thursday."

"At least you'll get it over with before you go back to school." Hermione said as she stood. It was clear that she was at least partially uncomfortable being in between Harry and Cho. "It's nice to see you, Cho. Harry, I'm going to be up in my room."

Hermione turned and left Harry and Cho staring at the space where Hermione had previously stood.

"That was weird." Cho commented.

"She's like my big sister. No one is ever going to be good enough for me, especially someone who I had a failed relationship with before."

"She doesn't believe in second chances?"

Harry sighed. "You defended Marietta. She mostly believes in second chances except for those who betray her loved ones."

"Except I didn't betray you."

"She doesn't see it that way." Harry countered. "To be honest, I didn't see it that way for a long time either."

"I suppose." Cho said as she stood, her bare legs showing. "I suppose this didn't help."

"Probably not." Harry smirked. "Other people do live here you know."

"I clearly forgot." Cho replied. "Dinner tonight?"

"Sure." Harry said, failing to suppress a grin. "Your place?"

"I don't cook." Cho countered. "And you certainly do."

"You know we're going to get weird looks from Hermione."

"Well, I'm hoping that the more time I spend around here, the less that will happen."

If there was any sentence that explained just how much Cho had changed over the years, that was it. In the past, she had been insanely jealous of his relationship with Hermione, not understanding the nuance and complexity of their interactions. All she saw was competition.

Now, Cho understood just how essential Hermione was to Harry's life: past, present and future.

"Fair enough." Harry replied. "Come over 'round eight?"

"It's a date." Cho said before wandering around the table and kissing Harry fiercely. "I'm keeping this, by the way."

"But that's the only jersey I have left from school." Harry said with mocked pleading.

Cho smiled. "Well, then I suppose you'll have to take it back at some point."

"Challenge accepted."

With a turn, Cho disappeared from his house, Apparating quickly back to her own home. At least that's what Harry thought until he heard a second POP! from upstairs. Clearly, Cho had Apparated upstairs to collect the rest of her clothing before she returned home.

Harry sat in the kitchen for a few minutes, enjoying the rest of his coffee before he climbed the stairs to search for Hermione. Just as she said, she was in her room to an extent. Rather than actually being in her room, she was seated on the joint balcony that was shared between Ginny, Hermione and Harry's room. She looked out over the neighborhood, watching the people on the street pass, completely unaware of their presence.

"Moved on a little quick, don't you think?"

"Moved on from what?" Harry asked as he sat in the chair next to Hermione. Neither looked at the other. Instead, they both stared out, watching London on a lazy Saturday morning.

"Ginny."

"Did you give Ginny this same speech?" Harry asked. "You know that she's been seeing Neville for a few weeks now."

"Yes, but it sounds like she had been seeing him while they were at Hogwarts."

"What's your point?"

Hermione finally turned to him, albeit only barely. "When we won the Battle, did you think that you were going back to Ginny?"

Harry thought about the question for a moment but he already knew the answer. "Yes."

"Yet, less than two months later, you're already sleeping with Cho Chang."

"Would we be having this conversation if it weren't involving Cho?"

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione said, her voice containing just a hint of anger.

"Don't think for one second that I don't know how much you dislike Cho. You didn't particularly like Cho, even before she sided with Marietta."

"She wasn't good enough for you." Hermione admitted.

"How well do you know her now?"

"How well do _you_ know her?"

"Well enough to know that I'm willing to give her a second chance." Harry replied. "She's different. We all are. I don't know if she's _the one_ or some bullshit like that but I like her."

"Clearly." Hermione replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. However, when she saw the sincerity on Harry's face, she relented. "Fine. I will try to know her better."

"She wants to get to know you better, too." Harry smiled. "For that, I'm glad."

"If you're happy, Harry, then I'm happy for you." Hermione answered. "Just let her know…."

"Yes, the traditional _you'll kill her if she hurts me_ threat. I enjoy the fact that it comes from you. Typically isn't that supposed to be a thing a guy says to his female friends."

"When have we ever done anything typically, Harry?"

"Good point."

Harry wandered about the house for the rest of the day, even taking the rare nap to try and fight off as much of his hangover as he could. As the afternoon slowly turned to night, Harry walked down to the corner store where he bought the supplies for what would end up being his dinner. When he got back, Harry was surprised to see Hermione waiting for him in the kitchen, a letter in her hand.

"What's that?"

"I got the same letter as you." Hermione replied. "I'm scheduled for the next day."

Just as she said that, a third owl dropped another envelope with Ginny's name on the front.

"I'm guessing she's going to be going to the Ministry too." Harry chuckled.

"Speaking of Ginny, where is she?"

"I'm guessing she went home with Neville?"

"I can't wait for the day that Neville's grandmother discovers how often Ginny's been staying there."

"I don't know. I'm not certain that I want to pick up what's left of Ginny if that happens."

As those words left Harry's mouth, there was a knock at the door. Harry made his way and opened it, finding Cho standing at the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Certainly." Harry said, sharing a brief kiss with Cho as she stepped past him. When they separated, Cho immediately noticed Hermione standing over Harry's shoulder.

"Evening, Hermione."

"Hi." Hermione said, clearly doing her best to tolerate Cho's presence. "I'll let the two of you alone."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to both of you." Cho countered. "I was informed that you received your notice to testify as well."

"Informed by whom?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

Knowing where this had the potential to go, Harry immediately interceded.

"Cho works for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Harry said quickly. "She has a bit of a side business as an information broker."

"Not exactly." Cho countered. "The information is basically my actual job at this point."

Cho turned back to Hermione.

"It's my job to collect as much pertinent information for Meredith Breckinridge as possible. The means by which I collect that information are up to me."

"Is it illegal?"

"Rarely." Cho admitted. "Typically, I pay people to provide information. Now, I do have a group of people that work for me. In that particular case, I can't always be certain how they obtain the information."

The look on Hermione's face was nearly murderous right away.

"Harry, can I speak to you for a moment?"

Knowing that denying Hermione would cause a massive scene, Harry turned to Cho, waving her into the kitchen apologetically before grabbing Hermione by the arm and taking her into the tapestry room just across the hall.

"We're going to do this now?" Harry sighed.

"You didn't think to tell me that she deals in information!?" Hermione shouted, causing Harry to whip out his wand and magically soundproof the room.

"Why does that matter to you?"

"Because the Ministry is always going to have a need for you. You don't think that it's possible that she's here on the orders of her boss?"

"Of course I've thought about that." Harry countered. "But there are a few things to remember now, Hermione. First, the Ministry isn't our enemy anymore. If Kingsley or Meredith or Robards wants to know something, they know they can ask. Second, even if Cho is using me for information, which is absolutely what you're accusing her of, that information is going to good people! People that I trust! Finally, once again, we wouldn't be having this conversation if it wasn't Cho!"

Hermione clearly did not expect Harry to get as animated as he had. The look on her face when Harry finished was one of surprise.

"I'm sorry." Harry said, doing his best to wind down. "I know what this looks like. I am aware that it looks like she is using me for information. But that's not how it _feels."_

"But you can't always go off of what it feels."

"That's how I work, Hermione, and you know that. I've dealt with people lying to me and using me for years and it took me awhile but I have developed a feeling for what that is and what that looks like."

"I know."

"What's the worst case scenario?" Harry asked firmly.

"What do you mean?"

"If she's working against me, sleeping with me to try and get on my good side, then who is she working for? Who's the worst person that we can think of that she would be working for?"

"The Malfoys." Hermione said, the name immediately jumping out of her mouth. "Dolohov or maybe some angry Pureblood family. Maybe she's still secretly upset with you."

"Now, of those three options, which ones do you think are likely?" Harry asked. "Think of the worst version of Cho that you can come up with and tell me what's the most likely."

Hermione thought for a moment. Eventually, her expression softened as her eyes rose to meet Harry's.

"None of them." Hermione admitted. "I may have not liked her. Hell, I may not like her now but she's not a Death Eater."

"My biggest concern is that seeing me is likely some sort of conflict of interest for her."

"That sounds like her problem." Hermione chuckled, releasing a rush of air as she laughed. "Fine. You're right. I will give her the benefit of the doubt. But-"

"Yes, if she hurts me, you'll kill her." Harry grinned. "You know you're starting to sound a bit like Ron."

"Don't make me kill you, Potter." Hermione said, rolling her eyes as she walked back into the kitchen where Cho awaited the both of them. Reluctantly, Hermione motioned for Cho to sit at the table. Cho and Hermione sat opposite each other, leaving Harry to pick the seat at the end of the table, putting him directly between the pair of them.

"I want to warn you about the Tribunal." Cho said, her attention split evenly between Harry and Hermione. It was clear that this wasn't the Cho that he was seeing but the Cho that people at the Ministry knew.

The one who pulled the strings behind the scenes.

"I thought the purpose of this Tribunal was to charge Death Eaters with every crime in the book." Harry asked.

"It is." Cho confirmed. "However, they've hired Robert Robinson to run the Tribunal. He's...well, he makes McGonagall look sloppy."

Immediately, Harry attempted to mentally conjure an image of a sloppy Minerva McGonagall and found that he couldn't even fathom the idea.

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because…" Cho hesitated for a moment, her head dropping slightly before she finished her sentence.

"Because I saw the transcript of your testimony in front of the Wizengamot." Cho finally said, her eyes not reaching Harry or Hermione. Almost immediately, Hermione turned to Harry, a look that clearly told Harry " _I told you so."_

However, before Hermione could jump down her throat, Harry interrupted.

"How?"

"Meredith Breckinridge." Cho answered. "I'm her chief adviser. If I didn't know what happened in there, I couldn't really do my job."

"Why would it be necessary for you to know that information?" Harry asked.

"I am Meredith's primary source of information. I need to know what is out there that could potentially damage her or The Ministry. As a result, I needed to know what the three of you said so that if that information ever got out, I would know what I was looking for and who was the most likely culprit in leaking it."

"You think that's a possibility?" Hermione questioned. "You seriously think there's someone that would release that information."

"Hermione, I was given that information by someone in the room. Now, I know and trust Meredith. But you're being foolish if you think there is no one that was left in that room that couldn't be bought or intimidated."

It was something that Harry hadn't really considered when he pushed to testify in front of the Wizengamot. But now that he knew that it was a possibility, Harry considered himself more prepared for that eventual outcome. If that day came, they would deal with that then. For now, Voldemort's secrets were safe.

"Why does that information have anything to do with the Tribunal?"

"Because I think we all know that there are some things that you left out of your testimony."

"Really?" Hermione replied, doubling down on their lie. "What would that be?"

"I don't know." Cho admitted. When Hermione looked at her with skepticism, she also reinforced her stance. "Honestly. But there are things that don't quite make sense."

"How so?" Harry asked. He was curious if she could identify what the concerns were. If she could, that meant someone else could as well, which would make it even easier to attack Harry for lying about those two things.

"Severus Snape, the man who killed your mentor, just showed up and gave you the Sword of Gryffindor and you didn't try to kill him?"

"We never explained that scenario." Hermione countered.

"That answer in itself implies that there is more to the story than you are telling." Cho replied. "Then, you end up at Malfoy Manor because you used Riddle's name?"

"Yes."

"Was Voldemort there when you arrived?"

Immediately, Harry realized where Cho was going. Still, he played the fool.

"Why does that matter?"

"Because if Snatchers captured Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, their first call would be to a Death Eater who would bring Voldemort directly to them."

"We were in hiding." Harry replied, obfuscating the truth slightly. "That included our appearances."

"Yet according to Draco Malfoy, Hermione and Ron looked exactly like themselves when they arrived."

It was as Harry thought. Cho had even more information than the court had.

"You've been talking to Malfoy?"

"The Aurors have. Basically every day. He's been very cooperative." Cho replied. "My point in this exercise is that there are clearly parts of your story that you've chosen to lie about. I don't know why and I don't presume to know you well enough to ask you directly. But, I will say that if you thought talking to Dawlish and Breckinridge was rough, this will be an entirely different animal. Robinson is an investigator. He sees through lies and punches holes in every story he hears. If you lie to him, he will know."

"So what would you suggest that we do?" Harry asked. "I think you know me well enough to know that there's a good reason for lying."

"I do but Robinson won't care. He's not interested in your reasons and he certainly doesn't give a shit about your name. He's interested in justice and only if it comes the right way. If you lie, he will know and he will either get you to tell the truth or he'll throw you in Azkaban right alongside every Death Eater that you put there."

This was not necessarily good news. Harry was glad that they got someone so passionately "by the book" to run the Tribunal but it meant a whole world of pain for him. Hopefully, Robinson wouldn't need to know anything specific about the scenarios other than the crimes that he would testify to having witnessed.

Deciding that he was done talking about this for the evening, Harry got busy making dinner. While he did so, Cho and Hermione spoke. While Hermione was still wary of Cho's intentions, the fact that Cho had gone out of her way to bring this information to Harry and Hermione's attention had clearly improved Hermione's opinion of her.

It was a step, albeit a small one, but it was still a step in the right direction for the relationship between his best friend and his…..

Well, if Harry was being honest, he didn't know exactly what to call Cho. She wasn't his girlfriend. At least that's not really what it felt like yet. But she was certainly more than a friend already.

Maybe once all this business with the Tribunal was over, they would be able to talk more.

That night, Cho chose to go home, leaving Harry to sleep restlessly as he thought of how he would answer specific questions. When he awoke, he wasn't surprised to see that Hermione was already awake, a cup of tea left alone beside her. There were times when Harry worried that she cared more for Harry than she did for herself.

This was certainly one of them.

After assuring Hermione that he would let her know what exactly had happened, Harry Apparated to the Ministry's hidden entrance. Making his way through the guest entrance and down to the Courtroom level, Harry saw no one else waiting in the hallway.

Clearly, Harry had been the first person to be called today to testify. In fact, Harry would have been surprised if anyone else was planned for the day.

Only three minutes later, a woman dressed all in black invited Harry to enter the room. This particular room, Courtroom Three, was much smaller than Ten, the traditional room where the Wizengamot met. Instead of the rows of seating, it was simply two benches, each of which sat about five people with a table in front of them. These benches were full of people, none of which Harry recognized, a rarity in their world.

Seated at the table was Robert Robinson. While Harry had never met the man, there was no questioning that he fit Cho's description. He appeared to be reaching the end of middle age although his lack of hair made his exact age difficult to determine. The glasses that he wore were black and square and appeared to have been polished and cleaned meticulously. In fact, as Harry looked over the man, dressed smartly in a plain suit, Harry couldn't find a single speck of dirt, lint, dust or any other imperfection on his clothing. His nails were clean and trimmed and his teeth, on the few occasions that Harry saw them, were almost blindly bright.

Robert Robinson was not a smiling man nor was he someone to be trifled with.

"Thank you for coming, Mr. Potter." Robinson said as he indicated the seat across from him. "As we are still in the questioning phase, I do not believe we need to be so formal as to use one of the larger courtrooms. I hope you find this to your liking."

Harry nearly laughed at the thought of Robinson doing anything informally. Also, the idea of such a cramped setting being "to his liking" also gave Harry a little chuckle. But rather than bursting into a fit of laughter, he simply nodded and sat across from Robinson, who had a large stack of parchment in front of him.

"It is my intention that this period of questioning be brief and succinct. I ask that when I ask you a question, you keep your answer brief and directly related to the matter at hand. Do you wish to make a statement before we begin?"

"No." Harry answered quickly.

"Very well." Robinson confirmed. "We will proceed in alphabetical order. Again, please limit your responses to activities and events that you were personally present for."

"Understood."

"The first defendant is Amycus Carrow."

For the next three hours, Harry answered each question that Robinson asked him. During his testimony on Carrow, Dolohov, Goyle, Greyback, Jugson and both Lestranges, the events at Malfoy Manor and the Forbidden Forest were left aside in favor of The Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the events leading up to Dumbledore's death.

The first few questions related to the eldest living member of the Malfoy family were similar. Robinson was clearly trying to place Malfoy at the scene of several incidents including Harry's first confrontation with Voldemort in the graveyard and The Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

Unfortunately for Harry, his next interaction with the Malfoy patriarch was at his home.

"Mr. Potter, how did you come to be at Malfoy Manor?"

"My companions and I were captured by Snatchers."

"It is my understanding that during your year on the run, both you and Miss Granger used a variety of protections and enchantments to avoid detection."

"That is correct."

"How did the Snatchers break through them?"

"I used Voldemort's name. We were unaware that it had been made a Taboo. When I used the name, the Snatchers were able to break through our enchantments and capture us."

"As a result, they took you to Malfoy Manor?"

"Yes."

"Was Lord Voldemort ever present while you were inside Malfoy Manor?"

"No."

"Really? Harry Potter was captured and no one thought to send for Voldemort?"

Harry sighed. He knew that how he answered the next set of questions would determine just how much of the truth Harry was going to be required to tell.

"Hermione cast a charm on me that changed my appearance. As a result, the Death Eaters couldn't be certain that it was me."

"Did either Miss Granger or Mr. Weasley have their appearances changed?"

"No." Harry admitted reluctantly.

"So Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley were found with a random stranger. Did they appear to suspect that you were Harry Potter?"

"They did. However, they couldn't confirm it. They attempted to get Draco Malfoy to confirm that it was me but he was either unable or unwilling."

"Are you claiming that Draco Malfoy helped you to avoid Voldemort'?"

"I'm claiming that he did nothing." Harry countered harshly. "He didn't fight for us or against us."

Harry knew that he had answered aggressively but the idea that Draco Malfoy had somehow helped him made him want to vomit.

"Where was Lucius Malfoy during all of this?"

"In the room. He encouraged Draco to identify us. I think he wanted to capture us so that he could redeem himself in Voldemort's eyes."

"Please keep your answers to what you know, Mr. Potter." Robinson said, not looking up from the notes he took. "When presented with the opportunity to escape, did Lucius Malfoy attempt to prevent you from leaving?"

"I Stunned him before he got the chance."

"What was he doing when you Stunned him?"

"Watching Bellatrix Lestrange torture Hermione Granger." Harry said, his teeth gritting at the thought.

"Why was Miss Granger being tortured?"

"Lestrange believed that we had stolen something from her."

"Had you?"

"No." Harry replied. Harry knew that this answer was a stretch of the truth. In fact, no one had stole from Bellatrix. The replica of Gryffindor's Sword remained in the Lestrange Vault, a replacement for the real one that Snape had taken before it had even been placed there.

Harry could tell that his answer wasn't necessarily satisfactory to Robinson but without directly calling Harry a liar, Robinson couldn't press any further. This was certainly part of the reason to interview Harry first, assuming that both Ron and Hermione had been called tomorrow. If Robinson was at all suspicious of Harry's testimony to the Wizengamot, which he almost certainly knew about, this would give him a good way to confirm his suspicions.

Thankfully, Robinson moved on. He asked a number of questions about the rest of the Death Eaters and even showed genuine shock when Harry detailed his treatment at the hands of Dolores Umbridge. Harry admitted leading a mission into the Ministry where they drew the attention of Corbin Yaxley, including a number of details that he had not been forced to share with the Wizengamot.

Harry hoped that would mean that Robinson would feel no need to look much further into Harry's version of events but he wasn't necessarily hopeful.

At the end, nearly five hours later, Robinson put his notes into a bag that had sat next to his chair the whole morning.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter." Robinson said finally, looking back at the rest of the observers who had been taking notes as well. "You are all dismissed."

Within just a few seconds, the others had gathered their materials and exited the room, leaving Harry alone with Robinson.

"You may relax, Harry." Robinson said calmly. "You don't need to worry."

"About what, sir?"

"I understand that my reputation as a thorough man proceeds me. But I wish for you to understand a few things. First, there is no expectation between either of us that you were completely honest with me today."

"Pardon me?"

"The scope of my investigation does not include certain elements of your story that I may personally find _inconsistent._ " Robinson replied. "There are some details of your story that I find unlikely to be the entire truth. Normally, I would push you to find those truths. However, my directive by the Minister of Magic is related to your interactions of the accused. If the Minister of Magic were anyone other Kingsley Shacklebolt, I would have considered abandoning that directive and uncovering whatever you may be hiding."

"But?"

"But Kingsley Shacklebolt is the most honest Minister of Magic we have had in our lifetime. He is a good man. While I do not know him that well personally, I have worked alongside him a number of times over the years. He is honest and forthright. When he approached him to run this investigation, he informed me that there were things about your story that I would find...unbelievable. Normally, that would have turned me away from running this investigation at all. However, your decision to bring your story to the Wizengamot changed my mind. I know that you were not entirely honest then as you were not entirely honest today. But I trust Kingsley and he clearly trusts you."

"That's good." Harry replied uncertain of what to say.

"In the future, someone will discover what it is you are hiding. When that day comes, someone will bring you back into this room and they will ask you questions specifically related to the things you are hiding. On that day, if you would find me on the other side of the table, I would tell you not to lie. Because on that day, if you lie, you will find me to be a far less understanding person. Am I making myself perfectly clear, Mr. Potter?"

Perfectly clear, Harry thought to himself. Robinson's threat rang loud and clear inside Harry's head. At the moment, Harry was in the clear but it was also quite apparent that if Robinson ever had the opportunity to truly come after him for his mistruths, he would not hesitate and Harry would be forced between keeping the secrets of the Horcrux or having the whole world think him to be some sort of messiah, abandoned by his friend in the middle of his greatest struggle.

It would only intensify the attention on Harry, which Harry could handle if needed. But he didn't want to drag Ron through the mud. He knew that no one would understand what Ron had been going through. Even Harry struggled with Ron's departure and he had experienced it. The rest of the world would throw Ron to the wolves, killing his character and massacring him publicly.

In that moment, Ron would finally be as famous as Harry for all the wrong reasons. There would probably be some that would actually attempt to kill him for his transgressions.

"Yes, sir." Harry said calmly. "Is there anything else?"

"No, Mr. Potter." Robinson replied. "We will be announcing the list of charges come Monday morning. I do hope to see you there."

"You can count on it."

Sure enough, Harry returned with Hermione and Ginny Monday morning for the announcement of the charges. Several members from both the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army were present. Normally, Harry would take his seat as a member of the Wizengamot but he felt it was important to show solidarity with those that fought alongside him.

After a brief introduction from John Dawlish, Robert Robinson replaced Dawlish at the podium. He gave a rather lengthy introduction of everyone on his Tribunal for listing each and every person that had been questioned.

That alone took about four minutes. It was clear that Robinson was a thorough man based simply on the raw number of people that he had spoken to. At the end of the list, Robinson withdrew a sealed scroll of parchment, unraveling it and letting it fall all the way to the floor where the rest of parchment pooled below him.

"The Death Eater Tribunal brings forth the following charges." Robinson said firmly. "Amycus Carrow: Murder, Affiliation with a terrorist organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statue of Secrecy, Harming of a Child. Maximum sentence: 171 Years in Azkaban Prison."

That was the typical list of charges. One hundred and seventy-one years of time in Azkaban Prison was the most common number given at the end of the list of charges for each Death Eater. It appeared that rather than attempt to corroborate each individual crime (each murder, for instance), if they could get evidence of one murder, they were simply charging them one time.

However, two people got a different list of charges, which made Harry smile.

"Lucius Malfoy: Murder, Affiliation with a terrorist organization, Three counts of Assisting in a Kidnapping, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statue of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Blackmail, Attempted Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum sentence: 235 years."

Yet, as much as Harry enjoyed hearing Lucius Malfoy's name associated with that many crimes, it was the next name that Harry loved most of all.

"Dolores Umbridge: Treason, Two counts of Murder, Aiding and Abetting of a Terrorist Organization, Two hundred and three counts of Illegal imprisonment, Sixty-seven counts of Harming a Child, Two counts of Improper Hiring Practices, Fourteen counts of Blackmail, Five counts of Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum sentence: 545 years in Azkaban Prison."

As Harry would find out later from Cho, most of the laws of the land were never technically changed during Thicknesse's time as Minister. Umbridge being who she was, not only did she comply with, write and enforce laws that were explicitly illegal but she documented it. Every single time that she forced Harry to use the Blood Quill (apparently sixty-seven times over his fifth year), she recorded it in her personal files.

When she was arrested, all of her files were confiscated. Apparently, her actions at Hogwarts were just the tip of the iceberg. There were payments from foreign governments, allowing them access to classified information. In her files, there was direct evidence to at least two Ministry officials that she had "made disappear" in order to protect Cornelius Fudge.

But the most shocking thing was the number of files that she had on other Ministry officials. She knew everything about everyone's dirty business and would frequently use it to keep them under control. Due to the nature of her position at the Ministry, it was clear that Robinson (and like Kingsley) wanted to throw the book at her and make an example of someone who dared to use their power for personal gain so heinously.

As Harry left the courtroom, Harry's only thought was that he simply couldn't wait to see the look on Umbridge's face when they put her away.


	16. Sixteen

_A/N: We're back at Hogwarts! Well, by the end of this chapter anyway. Amazingly, we still aren't even halfway through this story. There's a lot to get through in a year. That means that this story is going to end up being my longest story by a fairly wide margin, both in chapters and in word count._

 _Part of the reason I've been writing so much is that I've gotten such great feedback from quite a few people. I can't tell you how much I appreciate hearing that you are enjoying the story. It makes the ridiculous amount of time that I spend on this hobby worth it._

 _Now, read and review! Enjoy!_

* * *

The month of August slipped by quickly. What seemed like only a few days was actually almost the entire month, leaving only two days before Harry, Hermione and Ginny would return to Hogwarts. Harry and Cho had been spending at least one night a week together during that time. Unfortunately, the nature of Cho's job sometimes made it difficult to schedule more free time than that.

The only time they knew they would have together before Harry left for school was the night before he left, a time that Cho had apparently arranged with Meredith to ensure that she would not be called into the Ministry.

With so little time before Harry would return to Hogwarts, the three occupants of Grimmauld Place gathered their coin purses and made their way to Diagon Alley. While Harry had been to the Alley a few times over the summer, he hadn't spent much time really looking around. Since the last time that he had really been (the day that they broke into Gringotts), things had already improved. Stores were opened in previously vacant spaces and people wandered the streets openly, no longer afraid for their lives.

Unfortunately, Harry was not feeling as stress free as the rest of them. Because Harry and Hermione had to return to the scene of their greatest crime during the War: Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The moment the pair of them crossed the threshold of the bank, a silence came over the room as every single goblin stopped what they were doing and turned to look at them.

"Not exactly a warm reception." Ginny said with a smirk.

Suddenly, a single goblin entered Harry's line of vision. He stood in the center of the long room and, lifting a single finger, indicated for them to follow him. Not daring deny him, Harry quickly took off down the middle of the room, praying that they weren't about to be murdered by a bunch of angry goblins.

They were taken into an office with the words "Ragnok: Head Goblin" painted on the door. The paint was fresh, indicating that Ragnok, the goblin they were following, had only recently took over the operations of the bank.

"Sit." Ragnok barked. While he did not speak particularly loudly or even with any exceptional harshness, it was clear from his attitude that Ragnok did not care for Harry or Hermione or maybe anyone.

"Yes, sir." Harry said, taking the seat Ragnok pointed at as Hermione sat next to him. Ginny stood just inside the door, watching the scene with a look of vague bemusement.

"Mr. Harry James Potter and Ms. Hermione Jean Granger, I understand the two of you are to be commended for you role in defeating the Dark Lord. I pass along the Bank's appreciation."

That was not what Harry had been expecting.

"However, your defeat of the Dark Lord does not absolve you of your actions _here."_

That's more like it.

"Mr. Ragnok, sir, I do apologize for destroying the bank."

"Mr. Potter, we are goblins. You'll notice that the bank bears no scars, no reminder of the damage that you caused despite the fact that you flew a dragon through it."

"Yes, sir." Harry said dumbly.

"What cannot be tolerated is the fact that you managed to infiltrate this bank and steal a prized possession from one of our oldest clients."

Harry's brain paused momentarily. Thankfully, Hermione was there to make up for his momentary mental malfunction.

"You're saying that you're only mad at us because we stole from the Lestranges?" Hermione asked. "You do realize they are Death Eaters, right?"

"The nature of their business is their business, Miss Granger." Ragnok shot back. "Our business is security and the two of you, along with Mr. Weasley and one of our own, violated that security. Now, Gringotts will forever be tainted by the fact that _children_ managed to break into our most secure vaults."

Hermione opened her mouth, clearly to argue the fact that they were not children. Thankfully, Harry was able to speak before she could get her words out.

"Again, we're sorry for that. I assure you that if there were another way, we would have done that instead. But if we didn't get the artifact, we never could have defeated Lord Voldemort. I'm certain that he wasn't good for business."

"He was not." Ragnok admitted. "In fact, The Dark Lord and his great stooge, Lucius Malfoy, attempted to have all the money in the bank repossessed by the Ministry. Thankfully, there are safeguards in place to prevent that."

"But didn't the Ministry freeze all of Lucius Malfoy's assets?"

" ** _I_** froze his assets _."_ Ragnok snapped indignantly. "The Minister of Magic came to _**me**_ and asked for _**my**_ assistance in capturing the Malfoy clan. He wished to deny The Malfoys access to their funds. I graciously granted his request."

"My apologies." Harry said, already growing tired of apologizing to the goblin despite knowing that it would be better in the end. "Let's get down to business, Ragnok: I want to keep using Gringotts to store my money. We both know that Gringotts can't be seen denying my business. Even though you are upset with me, which I completely understand, it would be a political nightmare for you if you would decide that I could no longer bank with you."

"Unfortunately, you are correct." Ragnok replied through gritted teeth.

"I understand your position. You can't refuse me without risking the wizarding world coming down on you. But you also can't let me go without some sort of punishment or it will be seen as a betrayal of your people."

"I must say that I am surprised that you have summarized my plight so eloquently."

"So what do you want from me?"

"I beg your pardon?" Ragnok asked in confusion.

"I wish to fix my reputation with this bank and with your people. In order to do so, I am certain there are things that I would need to do."

"And you would be willing to do such things?"

"Well, let's talk about what I would have to do first and then we'll go from there."

Harry could tell that Ragnok was surprised that Harry was openly willing to accept punishment for his actions. It was assumed by the goblins that no wizard would be accountable for their actions when they harmed a goblin.

But, as Harry had been reminded numerous times over the years, he was no ordinary wizard.

"First, there will be a fine."

"How much?"

"5% of the value of your vault."

"Done."

That answer shocked Ragnok.

"Do you understand how much gold that is?"

"I do." Harry replied. "I also understand that I have done you a disservice and frankly, there's no way I need that much money."

Ragnok opened his mouth to speak but no sounds came. Instead, he simply froze, clearly confused by Harry's attitude towards his wealth.

"Yes...well, I would also ask that you sit down with the goblins in charge of vault security and detail just exactly how you broke in."

"Absolutely."

Again, Harry's agreement to Ragnok's terms confused him. Obviously, Ragnok had expected to be doing some negotiation of terms.

"Finally, you will pay the families of each goblin who died in the attack a penance of one thousand Galleons."

"Make it two."

"Excuse me?"

"Make it two thousand."

"Mr. Potter, that will mean paying over thirty thousand Galleons."

"Ragnok, how much money is my vault right now?"

Not surprisingly, Ragnok knew the answer right off the top of his head. "Just over twenty-five million Galleons."

"How many vaults have that much gold in them?"

"No more than a handful."

"Then we'll make it five thousand." Harry said, confirming his point. "Trust me, I can afford it."

"Very well, Mr. Potter." Ragnok said with a toothy grin. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you. There is just one more thing."

"What is that?"

"When you turned of age, there were certain parts of your parents' will that were supposed to have been executed. However, the list of executors was Sirius Black followed by Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin. By the time that we were able to track down Mr. Lupin, the Ministry had already been overtaken and you had gone into hiding."

"So what needs to be done now?"

Ragnok pulled a rather old and dirty piece of parchment from his robes and read.

"The last will and testament of James Potter and Lily Potter. In the event of our death, the entirety of our vault at Gringotts is to be split in two. Half shall be made available to Harry James Potter on his eleventh birthday, the other half made available to Harry James Potter on his seventeenth birthday." Ragnok said as he read from the parchment. "All other assets are hereby granted to Harry James Potter on his seventeenth birthday. In the event of our death before Harry becomes of age, Sirius Black is granted guardianship with an exception granted to Albus Dumbledore if we should be murdered by Lord Voldemort."

Ragnok stopped, handing the paper to Harry.

"The rest is for you, Mr. Potter."

Taking the paper, Harry read the text, clearly written by his father, judging on the similarities between his writing and the writing on the paper.

 _To Harry:_

 _If something has happened to us, we know that wealth will never bring you a family. But we hope that you've been able to move on and find a life and a family without us. Things are dangerous these days and Dumbledore says that we're in great danger, although he won't tell us why._

 _But he says that it is to protect you. Why you would need protection is beyond me but know that we will do everything in our power to protect you._

 _Makes us proud,_

 _Dad and Mum_

For a moment, Harry could only imagine the Forest and the last image of his mother and father before they disappeared. Harry smiled at the thought, knowing that even though he couldn't see them, they were still looking out for him.

"Thank you."

"I shall have the contents of the second vault transferred to the first if that pleases you."

"That will work." Harry said, still struggling to formulate words.

"In addition to those vaults, the only other asset the bank had in their possession was a house."

"There's not much of a house there anymore." Harry chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"The house. It was destroyed by Voldemort when he tried to kill me."

"Ah, I understand the confusion." Ragnok said. "That house does not belong to the Potter Estate."

"Who does it belong to?"

"It is currently in the possession of The Ministry of Magic. Prior to that, I believe it was owned by Albus Dumbledore."

"You're saying that the house my parents died in-"

"My assumption is that they were moved there when they went into hiding." Ragnok confirmed. "In any case, this house is located in the Dartmoor National Park and is the ancestral home of the Potter family. The house is named Greymoor Tower."

"Wait, Greymoor Tower belongs to the Potter family?" Ginny suddenly interjected.

"Indeed."

"You've heard of it?" Harry asked.

"Every Pureblood wizard has heard of Greymoor Tower. It's all that remains of the castle of Camelot."

"Camelot?" Hermione said skeptically.

"It's really a much simpler than the way the Muggles tell the story. Camelot was a castle held by a famous Pureblood family of their age. When the patriarch of the family passed away, Arthur, the oldest son, took control of the estate. However, Arthur didn't believe in Pureblood rule and, because of that, he was considered unfit to rule by most of his family. So the family was split in half with half supporting Arthur and half supporting Morgana la Fay, his half-sister. This conflict eventually spread to the local wizarding families, each choosing a side. The war was finally decided when Merlin joined Arthur and defeated Morgan in the great duel of their age. The damage to the castle was immense, leaving only a single tower of the castle standing. Rather than rebuild it, Arthur left his family's ancestral land and moved to a town where present day London sits, gifting the tower to Merlin upon his death. Merlin, having no children of his own, gave the tower to one of his students and it has remained in his family since then."

"How do you know that?"

"Everyone in the Weasley family is named after people in the Arthurian legend, the version that they tell Muggles anyway." Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "It's one of Dad's favorite things."

"That explains so much." Hermione grinned.

"In any case, Mr. Potter," Ragnok said, clearly trying to get the conversation back on track. "I can take you to Greymoor today if you wish."

"No." Harry said decidedly. "Give me the key and I'll visit it during one of my weekends of school."

"As you wish, Mr. Potter."

Having retrieved the documents regarding the new funds that had been made available to him along with the key and instructions on how to reach Greymoor Tower, Harry thanked Ragnok for his service before leaving with Hermione and Ginny. They spent the rest of their afternoon gathering the items they would need for their first few months at Hogwarts before returning home, vowing to pack that evening to avoid the typical chaos of The Burrow when leaving for King's Cross Station.

While Hermione and Ginny began packing, Harry left Grimmauld Place to meet Cho for dinner. The night was relatively calm and relaxing as Cho relayed a story about a rather intense meeting she had with Meredith Breckinridge earlier in the day. Apparently, there were members of the Wizengamot who were disappointed that they had not been consulted on the charges brought forth against the Death Eaters.

One such Wizengamot member was the Chief Warlock himself, John Dawlish, who had barged into Meredith's office while in the middle of a meeting with a foreign visitor who was looking to expand their rather large business into England, a deal that would have greatly helped England's struggling magical economy. Despite Dawlish's interruption, the deal wasn't dead and neither was Dawlish, although Cho had expressed some serious concern for Dawlish's well being once Cho escorted the visitor from the room.

Even though all of the executive offices at the Ministry were soundproof, Cho said she could have sworn that she heard Meredith through the door.

As the night wore on, Harry realized just how much he had come to enjoy the time that he spent with Cho. Ironically, the best part of the time that he spent with her was that he didn't feel the need to be _Harry Potter_ with her, a feeling that for the longest time he had associated with only a very select number of people. This had definitely not been how Cho had treated him in the past. In fact, there was a large part of Harry that knew that the only reason that she had been interested in him was **because** he was The Boy Who Lived.

Harry continued to discover that people change or, at the very least, people grow up.

"Cho, I'd like to ask you something." Harry said suddenly in a rare moment of silence between the two of them.

"OK?"

"I really like spending time with you." Harry stuttered, suddenly feeling nervous and clammy. "A lot, I mean."

"That's good." Cho said with a smile that reassured Harry that she felt the same.

"I'm going back to school but I don't want you to think that I'm ending...whatever this is."

"Whatever this is?"

"That's what I want to ask you." Harry said firmly, although his voice shook ever so slightly as he spoke. "I want to be with you."

"But Harry, you have been with me." Cho said, a devilish look on her face. "Several times, in fact. Why just two nights ago-"

"You know what I mean." Harry exploded with exasperation. "You and me, together. Like as a couple."

"You're asking me out?" Cho questioned.

"I've asked you out about a dozen times. You've been to my place like six times and I've been to yours quite a few as well." Harry answered. "But I want this to be more than just sleeping with each other. I want to be _with_ you."

Cho didn't respond immediately. Instead, she simply sat and stared at Harry as if she were examining him. She wasn't necessarily smiling but she certainly wasn't scowling either. In fact, Harry couldn't decide exactly what she was thinking until her face broke into a warm, caring smile.

"So do I, Harry." Cho confirmed with a smile.

"Good." Harry said, a great wash of relief rushing over him. "I know that going back to school isn't going to make this easy-"

"Here's the deal: I'm busy, you're busy. As long as we communicate, we'll be fine." Cho interrupted. "We both know that the next year is going to be hard. But there's a reason that I haven't been in any kind of serious relationship since I left school."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't think it was worth it." Cho answered pointedly. "But I think this is worth it. We're just going to have to be understanding. There are going to be times that I won't be able to come visit you and times that you won't be able to get out of the school for the weekend. There will likely be weeks at a time where we won't see each other. But if we know that going into this and we know that we still feel like this is worth trying to work through that, then I'm in."

"So am I." Harry confirmed with a grin. "I'm so in."

"And if we find out that we're terrible at long distance relationships, then at least we can say that we gave it our best shot." Cho said with a smile.

While Harry had been worried about talking to Cho, there was one other conversation that he wanted to have before he left for school. The next morning, Harry returned to the only place besides Hogwarts that he had ever truly thought of as his home. Landing in front of The Burrow, Harry was pleased to see that nothing appeared to have changed. The house was just as lopsided as ever with chickens and gnomes wandering the lawn freely.

It had been one of the funniest days of Harry's life when Arthur had revealed to Harry that they very easily could have warded the property to keep the gnomes away.

Arthur just wanted some time without his kids around ("If you catch my meaning," had been Arthur's exact wording, complete with a lecherous wink) and the gnomes offered a great excuse.

Harry entered the back of the house, walking into the kitchen where Molly was working on making what appeared to corned beef. Harry only hoped that those sandwiches weren't going to Ron who notoriously hated corned beef but refused to tell his perpetually overworked mother.

"Morning, Mrs. Weasley."

The sound of Harry's voice shocked Mrs. Weasley, causing her to jump in place, clutching at her heart as she turned to Harry. At first, she was angry until she saw exactly who it was and then she smiled wide, pure joy spread over her face.

"Harry!" she said as she threw herself in Harry's direction, wrapping him in a typical Mrs. Weasley hug, crushing yet reassuring. "Why didn't you warn us you were coming? I would have had lunch ready."

"It's not lunch yet, Mrs. Weasley."

"When has that ever stopped me?" Mrs. Weasley said with a wink.

"Fair point." Harry agreed. "Actually, the reason that I stopped by was to talk to Ron."

Immediately, Mrs. Weasley's mood shifted. The joy that had been so prevalent just moments earlier was gone, replaced by an obvious look of foreboding.

"He's in his room." was all she said in response.

"What's wrong?"

"He's...he's just not the same." Mrs. Weasley responded sadly. "He blames himself for so much."

"I know." Harry agreed. "I'm sorry for-"

"Harry, you have nothing to be sorry for. Ron is struggling. It's a daily challenge for his father and I, not to succumb to the same hopelessness that is affecting Ron. I can't even imagine how you feel. There is nothing wrong with not wanting to be dragged down with him."

"I feel like I abandoned him."

"From what I've heard, he abandoned you first." Mrs. Weasley said, a knowing look in her eyes.

"How much do you know?" Harry asked covertly, not risking Ron hearing them upstairs.

"No details but...enough to know that he hasn't always been a good friend to you either."

"I-I don't think that Ron is a bad friend. He's just-"

"A little short sighted sometimes." Mrs. Weasley interjected warmly. "He'll recover someday. He just needs to be able to see past Fred. I'm hoping that the Auror Academy will give him something else to focus on."

"When does he leave?"

"Tomorrow, same as you." Mrs. Weasley answered. "If all goes well, he will graduate in January as a full Auror."

"Well, I hope it all works out for him."

"You and me both." Mrs. Weasley replied sadly.

"I'm going to head upstairs. It was good to see you, Mrs. Weasley."

"You, too. Tell my daughter I expect her for dinner tonight."

"I will pass along the message." Harry chuckled as he climbed the stairs. Once he reached the top, Harry opened the door to Ron's room, not bothering to knock. As Harry opened the door, he was surprised by what he saw. Gone were the Quidditch posters and old comic books replaced with...nothing. It hardly looked like someone lived there at all. In fact, if not for the fact that Ron was sitting on his bed, Harry would have believed the room to be uninhabited.

Ron had certainly looked better. It had been a little longer than a month since the last time he had seen his friend and time had not done him any favors. It looked as if he hadn't shaved or cut his hair that whole time, giving him the look of a vagrant sitting on the side of the road, begging for change. Still, Harry noticed that Ron was reading something, a textbook titled "Defense Strategies for Hit Wizards: How to Hit Them Without Killing Them."

The fact that Ron was reading a book, apparently voluntarily, was shocking enough but the fact that it was a book on dueling and strike team strategies meant that Ron was apparently very serious about his upcoming time with the Aurors, something that boded well for Ron. If he could focus on this, then maybe he could get through the day-to-day grief for her brother.

"Ron." Harry finally said after a few moments when Ron didn't look up.

"Gimme a second." he muttered, his eyes never leaving the page. Finally, he appeared to reach a stopping point and put a piece of paper in the book to mark his spot before setting the book aside. When he looked up at Harry, it was as if Harry was seeing a new person wearing Ron's skin. There was none of his typical aloof nature. Instead, he appeared tense, feigning a kind of intensity that Harry didn't believe. While he sat up straight and looked Harry in the eyes, those eyes didn't carry the same fire that the rest of his behavior attempted to convey.

"Defensive strategies, huh?" Harry said awkwardly, motioning towards the book.

"Kingsley suggested a couple of books for me to read before I got started. It's some good information but it is still boring as hell to read."

"Better you than me." Harry grinned as he sat in the chair opposite Ron's bed. "Are you excited to go?"

"I'm ready to get out of the house. But I can't say that I'm terribly excited for five months of grueling training." Ron replied, a smile on his face that, for a second, reminded Harry of the old Ron. That smile disappeared and the new Ron resurfaced completely. "What are you doing here?"

Harry was taken aback by the suddenness of Ron's question.

"I came to see you." Harry answered honestly. "I wanted to see how you were doing before we both left."

"It's been a month. I'm fine." Ron answered curtly. For the first time since Harry walked into the room, Ron's eyes left Harry's face, answering Harry with them aimed at the ceiling above him.

Still, Harry didn't dare directly challenge Ron on what was clearly a lie. He didn't come to The Burrow to fight with Ron. On the contrary, Harry had hoped that the pair of them could start the reconciliation process before they went their separate ways.

Based on that answer, Harry wasn't certain that was going to be the case.

"That's good." Harry said, knowing that the answer lacked sincerity. Ron immediately picked up on the lack of confidence in Harry's voice and narrowed his eyes skeptically.

Harry raised in hands defensively in response. "What?"

"You don't believe me." Ron scoffed. "No one believes me."

"You've changed, Ron." Harry said simply. "We want to believe you but I don't recognize the person in front of me."

"Well, you wanted me to change, so here we are."

Normally, an argument with Ron lead to yelling almost immediately. This was different. Harry was shocked by just how even Ron's behavior was. If Harry couldn't see Ron, he would have been worried that he had been charmed somehow.

"I never wanted you to change, Ron. I wanted you to heal."

"Well, this is how I'm doing it. If you don't like it, you can leave."

"You honestly feel like you are healing? Do you feel better than you did the last time I saw you?"

"I feel...more in control of myself." Ron said firmly. "I don't know how to feel better right now. But this is better than being out of control all of the time."

"How did you do it?"

Ron reached under his bed and pulled out a book: _A Guide to Occlumency._

"Occlumency? Really?" Harry asked in surprise.

"It's been helpful." Ron admitted. "I felt...scattered after the Battle. After Fred. I was reacting to everything, letting everything escalate. This has helped keep me be more...organized."

"It sounds like you're just pushing that aside. The things that were bothering you."

"I am. For now." Ron added when he saw Harry's face. "I know that this isn't going to work forever. I know that I'll have to face things more directly someday. But for now, this keeps me level. It keeps me moving forward."

"That's good."

"Are you ready to go back to school?"

"I'm ready to get out Grimmauld Place for awhile." Harry said with a grin. "I am nervous about trying to be a student and a teacher at the same time."

"Just get Hermione to do your homework for you." Ron said with an evil grin.

"Well, considering she is in only one of my classes, I doubt that will be happening."

"Which classes is she taking?"

"Potions, Arithmancy, History of Magic, Herbology, Ancient Runes and Charms."

"She's the only person insane enough to try and get six NEWTs." Ron chuckled. "She'll get perfect scores on all of them, of course."

"It's never been done before." Harry responded. "McGonagall told Hermione that even she thought she was a bit nuts for attempting six. No one asks for more than five and that's only the Aurors. Most regular Ministry positions apparently ask for two or three."

"Well, if there's anyone that can do it."

"Exactly." Harry responded. "Listen, I wanted to say that I'm-"

"Don't."

"Ron, you are going through a lot that-"

"That doesn't excuse me from acting like an asshole." Ron countered before Harry could finish his sentence. "Friendship isn't a competition. You know, when you said that, it really hurt. But I knew it hurt because you were right. It is not a competition and I know that for years, I've thought of it that way."

Harry was surprised at just how much time Ron had clearly spent thinking about what Harry had said. Maybe Ron was growing up quicker than Harry had expected.

"On an almost daily basis, I go back and think about the things that I've done. It's been hard, reminding myself of all the times that I've been horrible to you or Hermione. I suppose the first step to fixing something is being aware of it. I know that I haven't been a good friend over the years. But I will."

"You've been a good friend, Ron." Harry reassured him. "We all have our weaknesses."

"I'm a very jealous person." Ron admitted.

"Yes, you are." Harry said with a smile. "But you aren't alone. Like I said, we all have our weaknesses. Dumbledore kept too many secrets. Hermione is a bit too controlling for her own good sometimes."

"What about you?"

"I...well, I am reckless, jumping into situations without thinking far too often. Plus, when I think I'm right, I know that I can be a bit stubborn."

"But you're usually right."

"That shouldn't be an excuse for not even bothering to consider other ideas." Harry replied. "My point being that we're all human, none of us are perfect. That doesn't keep us from being good friends. You are still my friend, Ron."

"But we were both spiraling out of control."

"Not exactly." Harry countered. "I have lived with nightmares, grief, guilt for years. Ever since I was introduced into the wizarding world, I have understood those things as a part of my daily existence. The things that have kept me grounded and kept me from spiraling were my friends. But for the first time, one of the people that I had always leaned on was suffering from those same things."

"I never really understood what you went through. I just saw how much people loved you."

"Until they didn't." Harry reminded him. "I tried to help you out of it but I didn't know how. I walked away, pushed you away really. I knew that if I stayed around you, I would follow you down the hole into the darkness and I couldn't follow you. So, I separated. I hoped that you would find a way back."

"I did. Sort of."

"But I should have been there for you."

"Well, now we both know what it feels like to be abandoned by the other." Ron said, a grin splitting his face.

Harry had no response to that but laughter. Things were never going to be able to go back to the way they were. Voldemort had spent years seeing to that. But that didn't mean that things couldn't go back to being good between Harry and Ron. Nothing had been solved during their conversation. Ron was still struggling with the death of his brother but Harry hoped that they had finally reached the low point of their friendship and that things were finally looking up.

It was with that in mind that Harry woke up the following morning. Unlike the years past when the chaos of The Burrow reigned supreme, Harry made a quick breakfast for himself along with Cho, Hermione, Ginny and Neville, who had stayed the night to say goodbye to Ginny before they went their separate ways (he was also leaving for the Auror Academy later that day).

The group of five gathered the luggage of the three returning to school and walked outside where the Muggle cab they had called to take them to King's Cross was waiting. Without Hedwig, there was no strange animal to explain and Hermione had performed a spell that ensured their luggage looked like the normal Muggle kind, rather than the kind with a giant Holyhead Harpies sticker on the side.

The trip to King's Cross was uneventful and the quintet unloaded the luggage and walked inside the train station. As they did, Harry was struck with a massive sense of deja vu. The last time he been "in" King's Cross Station, he had technically been dead for a moment.

Or at least he could have been.

Hermione noticed Harry abruptly strange behavior and wandered closer to him.

"Are you okay?"

"Just...remembering my conversation with Dumbledore."

It took Hermione a second to register exactly what Harry was saying. "It happened here?"

"It looked like here. But I don't know that it was anywhere."

"What are you two talking about?" Cho asked suspiciously.

"Something that...I don't want many people to know."

Harry could tell that answer irked Cho so he stopped, letting the others go on ahead so that he could talk to Cho alone.

"There's more to the story about Voldemort and I."

"I'm aware of that."

"I know. There are things that only a very limited number of people know about how things went down. For the time being, I am keeping it that way. I trust you. There is no question of that. But I also know your position at the Ministry is based around information. This is the kind of information that you would feel required to tell Meredith."

"So you're doing this for me?"

"No." Harry admitted. "It's just an additional bonus. Listen, we've had a great few weeks. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring. If things stay good and this looks like a thing that's going to be a permanent fixture in my life, then the very moment I realize that, I will tell you. I promise you that."

"You could just swear me to secrecy." Cho winked.

"I could but I won't." Harry replied. "When the time comes, you'll understand why."

Harry could tell that Cho wasn't necessarily pleased with any of these answers. But, he could also tell that she understood. Cho nodded softly.

"I hope a day comes that the weight of the world is taken off your shoulders."

"That day is coming." Harry responded optimistically. "I know it."

"I hope so." Cho said, kissing Harry gently. "I've got to get to work. Send me a letter from the castle tonight?"

"Absolutely." Harry replied. "I'll be home in a couple of weeks."

"Enjoy yourself and stay out of trouble."

"I'd better. I get in trouble and not only will McGonagall throw me out of school and fire me, but Hermione might kill me."

"More reason to toe the line this year." Cho said with a warm smile. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Harry answered. "See you soon."

With another brief kiss, Harry left Cho standing on the platform, watching him walk away as he pushed his trolley towards Platform 9 and ¾. Harry hated leaving her. She had become such an essential part of his life over the last month that Harry couldn't imagine life without her. But Harry realized as he passed through the portal, laying his eyes on the Hogwarts Express for the first time in over a year, that he wouldn't be without her. Not only would he be able to escape the castle occasionally but he would be writing to her constantly, something that would hold him over until he could see her again.

Harry passed by Neville saying a rather lengthy goodbye to Ginny, catching up with Hermione as she left her luggage to be placed on the train.

"Follow me." she said as she took off towards the front of the train. Harry had never been inside the Prefect's car, having never been a Prefect himself. As Harry passed through compartment after compartment, he discovered that every single eye on the train focused on the two of them as they passed by. Sure enough, by the time that they reached the Prefect car, everyone on the train would know that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had returned to Hogwarts.

The Prefect compartment was just a simple dining car with plushy chairs lining the walls. When Harry and Hermione entered the compartment, they were greeted briefly by two fifth year prefects that Harry had never met. Needless to say, both were very excited to be working with Harry and Hermione, a fact that they reminded them of no less than seven times during their thirty-second conversation.

Harry and Hermione were waiting when Ginny suddenly walked in the room, wearing the badge of a school Prefect.

"You're a Prefect?" Harry asked.

"That is where the badge comes from." Ginny grinned.

"You never told us?" Hermione questioned.

"It's not a big deal. Plus, I wanted to surprise you guys since I knew you would be Head Boy and Girl." Ginny said, a stupid grin plastered on her face that reminded Harry very much of Ron.

"Seriously? We lived with you all summer and you never told us?"

"To be fair, she lived with Neville about half the summer." Harry said with a knowing nod in Ginny's direction.

"Shut up, Harry."

"You don't give the orders around here." Harry said with a fake laugh. "Take a seat, Weasley."

"Yes, sir!" Ginny answered, complete with a massive mocking salute.

By the time that the train took off from the station, all of the prefects had made their way to the compartment, sitting in the chairs as Harry and Hermione held court in the center of the room. Once she was certain that she had everyone's attention, Hermione withdrew a scrap of parchment from her pocket and began reading.

"Thank you for attending this meeting. My name is Hermione Granger and this is Harry Potter and we will be the Head Girl and Head Boy this year."

The room suddenly burst into spontaneous applause as every Prefect (even those from Slytherin) stood and applauded them.

"Sit down." Harry said gently. "We appreciate the display but it's not necessary."

"He's right." Hermione added."Now, I would like everyone in the room to introduce themselves, starting with you, Jimmy."

Harry was glad to see that the Gryffindor contingency included at least one other that he knew relatively well. Jimmy Peakes, who had played Quidditch with Harry during his sixth year, was one of the newest Prefects. Natalie McDonald, who Harry had only spoken to a handful of times, was a Prefect as well.

The other three Harry was unfamiliar with, other than he remember them all trying out for the Quidditch team at some point: Iain Calverdon, Vicky Frosbisher and Geoffrey Hooper who was just as obnoxious as Angelina had told him he was.

The Ravenclaw group was headed by a surprise return to school: Michael Corner. Harry would find out later that his father told him that if he didn't return to Hogwarts and get an actual education, he would be written out of the family will. Joining him was Sara Fawcett, Helen Dawlish (in fact, John Dawlish's oldest daughter), Trevor Birch, Stewart Ackerley and Orla Quirke.

Again, the Hufflepuff group included one surprise. Hannah Abbott had taken Harry's advice and applied to return to school. Craig Dunn, Derek Anderson, Rose Zeller, Eleanor Branstone and Kevin Whitby were the other Hufflepuff Prefects.

Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, a famous Pureblood family who had defected from Voldemort, were prefects along with Harper Green, who kept shooting lecherous looks at every girl in the room. Graham Pritchard, Titus Meacham and Sylvia Melville rounded out the group. It seemed obviously intentional that each class was represented by at least one student who had returned for their "eighth year:" Daphne, Hannah, Michael and both Harry and Hermione.

Still, Harry was shocked at how young some of the youngest Prefects looked. Harry supposed that at some point he had looked that young but then Harry's life had not been exactly ideal so it was absolutely possible that Harry had evolved from an eleven year old to a thirty year old trapped in the body of an eighteen year old.

Hermione spent the next fifteen minutes detailing the rule changes that she had been given by McGonagall before fielding questions from the Prefects on what that would mean for their jobs as Prefects. When that was finished, Hermione turned to Harry and asked if he had anything to say.

He did.

"This year is going to be hard." Harry said gently. "There are people that have lost a lot and they've only had a few months to deal with it. We've got families who were fighting each other just a few weeks ago and now they're expected to go back to school and be friends with them. It is not our job to rat out every single negative comment someone says. But I think we're all smart enough and aware enough to realize that there's a difference between a harmless statement and an actual threat. And if you can't tell the difference, act on the side of caution."

"If you hear of anyone, and I mean anyone, who you believe may cause harm to another student, you will report it to me or Hermione or a staff member immediately. If a classmate is talking at three in the morning, you have my permission to find Hermione or I and inform us in that moment. Merlin forbid a student attacks another student when we could have done something to stop it."

Harry looked around the room to ensure that everyone understood just how serious Harry was about this matter. It appeared, based on the attentiveness of everyone in the room, they understood just fine.

"You're all dismissed." Harry finally said. "See Hermione for your patrol schedules."

As the rest of the Prefects moved towards Hermione, Harry walked towards the exit, hoping to do a quick check of the train himself before finding Luna and any others that may have joined him.

Unfortunately, the moment that Harry stepped out of his compartment and into the next one, Harry saw a duo that Harry had hoped to avoid for the time being.

"Theodore, Pansy." Harry said cordially, his hand hanging just above his wand. While he had no desire to duel either of them, Harry couldn't be certain what their intentions were and he was not about to stand in front of them unprepared.

"Potter." Nott replied. "Hope you had a good summer."

"I did." Harry answered. "You?"

"Well, let's see: I haven't seen my father since early May and the Ministry has raided my house roughly eight times since then. How about you, Pansy?"

"My parents have both been harassed by the Aurors at work, questioned over a dozen times, and my house has been raided about six times."

"Sounds like an eventful summer." Harry said with a smirk. When both of them started to reach for their wands, Harry spoke up again. "Now, before you do that, I want you to think about a couple of things."

"Like what?"

"If you attack me, you'll only be guaranteeing that your father is never able to come home." Harry said to Nott before turning to Pansy. "And do you want your parents to lose their jobs? Because I guarantee you that no one is going to keep someone whose children attack Harry Potter."

"You think your name frightens us?"

"As much as the name Malfoy used to frighten Muggleborns, yes." Harry countered, steel in his voice. "You're upset. I get it. You used to be on top of the world with half-bloods and Muggleborn on the bottom of the pile where they belong."

Harry heard the door behind him open and turned to see Hermione standing at the door. Harry quickly flicked his head, wordlessly motioning to Hermione. Getting his message, Hermione closed the door.

"The world has changed." Harry said as he turned back to the two Slytherins. "You can either accept that it has changed and move on or you can fight that change with the understanding that the moment you lose that fight, you'll spend the rest of your lives regretting it."

"Are you threatening us, Potter?"

"I'm explaining what you seem to be too dense to understand. There's no winning for you if you attack me here. You'll both end up in Azkaban and your families' legacy will be tarnished forever."

"It's already tarnished forever." Pansy shot back.

"No, it isn't." Harry replied. "It's tarnished _now_ and if you follow in the footsteps of your parents and grandparents, it will remain that way. If you hold to old prejudices, the world will pass you by and no one will remember the Nott and Parkinson families as anything other than monsters who supported an even bigger monster."

Harry raised his hands to show that he had no intention of attacking.

"But, if you choose to be better, then your families become a story of redemption. From the dark to the light."

"You think that sounds like redemption?"

"I think if you have any empathy in you, then yes. If you actually are the monsters that everyone expects you to be, then that's just disappointing and then I guess, no, that wouldn't be redemption in your eyes." Harry answered firmly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, you're blocking the path and I have a whole train full of Prefects trying to do their jobs."

With a look of confusion on their faces, they stood aside as Harry opened the door and allowed the Prefects to go about their duties. Once they were all gone, Harry stood with Hermione before Nott and Parkinson.

"Be better or don't. I don't care but if you dare harm any student at this school this year, know that I will come down on you like a thunderstorm."

The rest of the trip passed by without incident. When they arrived at Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione orchestrated the Prefects in assisting the first years towards the boats while the rest of the students loaded up in the carriages, which would have normally been easy.

However, since The Battle of Hogwarts, something had changed: almost every single returning student, who had for years believed that the carriages were simply magical, pulled by an invisible charm, could now see the thestrals who pulled the carriages. A number of students were so frightened of the beasts that they nearly refused to get on the carriages.

It took Harry personally going around to each of them and assuring them that nothing would happen to them for each frightened passenger to finally board the carriages. For years, the Hogwarts students had lived blissfully unaware of the death that surrounded them.

Now, they were greeted with images of dark, winged horses who reminded them of the Death they had seen just months before in the castle where they would spend the next nine months of their life.

Harry took a seat in between Hermione and Ginny and across from Luna. After nearly ten minutes, they finally came upon the castle. For a moment, Harry was reminded of the first time he had seen the castle from the boats out on the lake.

Then, the image in front of him shifted to the reality of their situation.

Hogwarts Castle was very clearly still broken. According a number of people, magical reconstruction crews had been working non-stop over the summer to try and restore the castle to the way it was with only moderate success. The magics of the castle were old and seemed to have been broken. Curse breakers and rune specialists had been brought in to see if anything could be done to fix the school, again with little success.

Still, most of the castle stood and giant portions of the castle had indeed been fixed. No longer was the Great Hall an outdoor dining area as its roof had finally been rebuilt. The courtyard where Voldemort had brought back Harry's "lifeless body" had been restored almost exactly as it had been before with a single change.

Dumbledore's tomb, originally placed by the lake, had been moved to the center of the courtyard, a place that Dumbledore had frequently been seen wandering at night by students and staff alike.

When the carriages arrived and the students entered the castle, Harry was pleased to see that almost no damage remained visible. In fact, it seemed like nothing had been damaged at all.

Until Harry entered the Great Hall and looked up.

Now, instead of the night sky that Harry had expected to see, he saw only wood and stone holding up the ceiling. Clearly, the enchantment that had previously be used to show the sky above had been broken and was not yet fixed.

Harry hoped that it would be fixed soon. It had been one of his favorite traditions: the first time the First Years had seen the ceiling of the Great Hall.

Almost the moment that Harry had that thought, the First Year students were escorted into the Great Hall by Professor Flitwick. The group was small, smaller than any class that Harry could remember. Apparently, the rumors of a dwindled number of students had Hogwarts had been true. In fact, as Harry looked around the room, he could see that just above half the number of students from Harry's previous years at Hogwarts had remained, a shocking fact considering there were technically eight years represented at Hogwarts this year.

As expected, The Sorting Hat was brought forth to begin the Sorting. Not as expected, no song was granted from the Hat. Harry was wondering why that was up until the time that the Sorting ended and McGonagall stood to speak.

"For those of you returning students who wish to know why The Hat did not sing this year, it was at my request." McGonagall stated to hushed voices. "Good evening all. My name is Minerva McGonagall and I am the Headmistress here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I asked the Hat not to sing because I wish to impart a few things upon you this year that will fundamentally change life at this school."

"We have experienced a great deal within these halls over the last few months. But we must move forward. As Gryffindors, Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs: we must move forward. Each House fought against Lord Voldemort and each House has its heroes. Together, though, we must move forward. We must remember that we are all here to learn and we are all here to make ourselves and the world of our people better."

"We must move forward. In that vein, I have made one rather drastic change this coming year. For one year and one year only, I have suspended The House Cup."

Almost immediately, the room fell silent. Of all the things that Harry had expected McGonagall to say, this was certainly not among them.

"Do not worry. Quidditch will still be played this season." McGonagall said with a chuckle. "This is why The Hat did not sing tonight. Things in our world and things in our school have changed. We have been forced to look our friends and family in the eye and wonder if they are on our side. We will not do that here. Hogwarts is one home, one family. While you have still been Sorted into your Houses, remember that all form the Hogwarts sigil. Without one, we are incomplete. Together, all four, we must move forward."

"To help us along the way, I am proud to announce our new staff for this year. Taking over the Defense Against the Dark Arts post will be Bill and Fleur Weasley. Bill was a former Head Boy at Hogwarts and Fleur, the Beauxbatons Triwizard Champion!" McGonagall said as the couple stood to uproarious applause from the Gryffindor table. "Assisting them will be our Head Boy, Harry Potter."

Harry remained fixed as every eye in the room focused on him. Looking up at McGonagall, she motioned for Harry to come forward. Reluctantly, Harry did as he was asked, coming to stand next the Headmistress in front of the entire school.

"Harry has been awarded the position of Professor-in-waiting by myself and the Board of Governors. Assuming that Harry has completed all the proper requirements, in two years' time, Harry will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. This year, he will be assisting with as many first and second year classes as his schedule will allow. As such, for those of you that are lucky enough to be in one of the classes that he assists in this year, it is to be understood that Mr. Potter will be treated like any other professor."

The applause that followed was much more tepid that what had followed Bill and Fleur. Of course, that was probably because the entire room started talking all at once. With a quick clearing of her throat that Harry thought sounded oddly familiar (" _Hem!"),_ McGonagall quieted the room and continued.

"Taking over for Horace Slughorn is Professor William Calhoun. Professor Calhoun attended Hogwarts from 1978-1985. He will also be taking over as The Head of Slytherin House. Please give Professor Calhoun a warm Hogwarts reception."

Calhoun was a tall, thin man with absolutely no hair to be seen anywhere on his head. The black robe that he wore made him look a bit like a vulture, especially due to his overly large nose.

"Finally, some of you who are old enough will remember our last new Professor. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my position as Headmistress, I am no longer able to teach Transfiguration. Also, Madam Hooch has decided to retire. This left me with a need to fill both of these positions. Thankfully, an ideal candidate presented itself in another former Triwizard Champion and international Quidditch star, Viktor Krum."

Almost immediately a fevered whispered spread through the room as Harry looked to the front of the room and saw that Viktor Krum was, in fact, seated at the Head Table, waving gently at the crowd. Krum's eyes tracked the crowd until he saw Harry and Hermione, who he gave a gentle smile and a brief nod of recognition.

"All that being said, I look forward to a great new year at Hogwarts. Now, tuck in."

With everything that was going on, along with Krum back at Hogwarts, this certainly was going to be another interesting year at Hogwarts.


	17. Seventeen

_A/N: Good news, it's Super Saturday! I got a review asking why CHP 17 hadn't been released yet. Normally, I wouldn't release another so soon but I've got quite a few chapters written and decided that I could spare one chapter in my writing buffer. Consider it my New Year's gift to everyone who has read this story and been so incredibly supportive._

 _Read and review!_

* * *

Harry woke up the next morning in his new living space away from the rest of the castle. After Harry and Hermione had orchestrated the Prefects into leading their respective first years to their Common Rooms, McGonagall had led them to their new living spaces, which were located in the Headmaster's Tower.

Just around the corner from the gargoyle that would lead to Professor McGonagall's office was a portrait of renowned magizoologist Newt Scamander. According to Hermione, he is one of the few people who had gotten kicked out of Hogwarts who had a portrait in the castle.

Apparently, he had a very close personal friendship with Dumbledore, which helped him earn his portrait.

The Head Boy and Head Girl dormitories were separated by a single common area that reminded both of them of the Gryffindor Common Room. According to McGonagall, the room was enchanted to change based on the Houses of the Head students. Harry paused to think for a moment what a Gryffindor-Slytherin room would look like before realizing that they would simply look like they were celebrating Christmas year round.

Harry rose early on the first day of classes. He took a shower before taking a seat in the Common Area and then waited for Hermione to finish getting ready so they could go down to breakfast together. Thankfully, Hermione wasn't the type that took hours to get ready in the morning and both were in The Great Hall for breakfast right on time.

The moment that Harry sat down, Ginny planted herself right across from him.

"Good morning!" she said, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Morning?"

"Guess what?"

"It's a little early for guessing games, don't you think?"

"I've been named Captain of the Quidditch team!" Ginny exploded, clearly unable to hold it in any longer.

"That's great!" Hermione said with excitement, signalling the first time in recorded history that Hermione had ever been excited about anything related to Quidditch.

"Yeah." Harry smiled, although some part of him felt strange. In the past, Quidditch had been all that he had ever thought about. Now, it seemed so weird to think about a sport over everything else.

"Are you going to tryout?"

So this is what she was so excited about: she thought that Harry was returning to Quidditch. Honestly, the idea wasn't terrible. Harry knew that he was going to be busy this year between classes, teaching, his Head Boy duties while trying to maintain his relationship with Cho. But, he also knew that he could use some stress relief, something Quidditch could certainly bring him.

"I'll think about it."

"You'll think about it?"

"I've got a lot this year, Ginny. I'm not sure if I can do it at all so yes, I'll think about it and you'll consider yourself lucky to get that much."

Ginny pouted gently for a moment before she went about piling food on her plate. Just as she did that, Professor McGonagall came by with Harry's timetable. Unlike everyone else who had received them from Professor Sprout, Harry's had been specifically configured with his professors and McGonagall to ensure that he could attend as many first and second year Defense classes as possible.

Looking at Harry's schedule, he saw that his class schedule itself was relatively light. Mondays were just Transfiguration, Wednesdays just Defense and Friday just Charms. On Tuesdays, he had both Transfiguration and Defense while Thursdays were both Defense and Charms.

However, you then had to add the classes he would be assisting with: one on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Thursday and a final class on Friday. Overall, it gave Harry the schedule of someone attempting seven NEWTs rather than the three that he was going to be earning.

Immediately, Harry looked across the table to Ginny.

"I'm done thinking. You're going to have to find another Seeker." Harry said, suddenly nervous at the workload that he knew that he was in for.

"Seriously? It can't be that bad." Ginny replied, taking the schedule out of Harry's hand. Ginny scanned the page, her eyes widening with shock the further down she went. Finally, she handed the paper back to Harry.

"Nevermind. I'll find someone else."

"I have to be the Head Boy at some time in there too." Harry muttered. "Thank Merlin we have individual living spaces. I may never sleep this year."

Even if Harry had been interested in playing Quidditch, Harry would have been entirely against the idea after his first class with Krum. The class, strange as it was to be taught by someone other than McGonagall, was relatively straightforward. The subject matter, on the other hand, was anything but straightforward.

For the year, the class would be separated into smaller groups and each would be given a particular discipline within the field of Transfiguration. By Christmas, they were required to turn in an essay detailing the strengths of this particular form of Transfiguration, why it is used and potential improvements that could be made with further research. Then, at the end of the year, the classroom had to specifically demonstrate this kind of Transfiguration. All of this work would needed to be done outside of class as the actual class periods would be spent working on the most advanced forms of Transfiguration.

Thankfully, Harry had been put into a group with Ginny. They would be sharing their work with two others, a Ravenclaw named Jerry that Harry had never met and a Slytherin named Samantha who Harry had seen in passing but had never spoken to. When it came time to receive their assignments, Harry couldn't help but laugh at what his group had been assigned.

Human Transfiguration: just like Viktor in the lake. Harry wondered for a moment if Krum had realized what he had done. When he looked up at his professor, Harry could have sworn that he saw the slightest smirk on Krum's face.

That was just a taste of what the year would be like for Harry. Come Wednesday and Defense Against the Dark Arts and Harry learned that he would be required to do a series of essays on highly complex forms of defensive magic, one due each month of the school year while in the classroom, Bill and Fleur (who had refused to be addressed as Professor, likely due to Bill's lack of formality) would be teaching them about the history of Dark magic and the stories of its primary practitioners.

Needless to say, a certain Dark wizard was guaranteed to show up at some point this year.

Meanwhile, in Charms, Harry would be learning how to deconstruct a spell to understand exactly how the wand movement was supposed to accentuate the intention of the spell. Using this, in theory, a wizard could learn to perform magic without a wand, although only the rarest could perform magic even close to that of someone with a wand.

Unfortunately, performing magic without a wand was one of their goals for the year. All Harry could remember was how hard it had been for Harry to learn how to cast wordlessly. Now, he was expected to do it both without speaking and without a wand.

Thankfully, Harry enjoyed his instructing sessions so much that it made up for the challenges of his classwork. In a sense, it was like being in a junior version of Dumbledore's Army again. For the most part, the students were simply learning the beginning of wandwork, a few simple spells and general defensive magic.

By the end of the year, the second year students may start learning some more advanced magic but for the time being, they were simply learning how to consistently send out sparks with their wand without setting the castle on fire while the first year students literally focused on holding their wands correctly.

As Harry made his way down to breakfast early Friday morning, all he could think of was how different the castle seemed than the last time that he had been a student here. Some of that was certainly the Battle. The castle did still look a little worse for the wear and there were sections of the school that still hadn't been fixed.

According to McGonagall, there was a large chance that some of them would take years to fix and with such a small student population, there was no immediate rush to get them repaired.

But the largest difference was the people. Almost no one from Harry's class had returned. Outside of Harry and Hermione, Michael Corner from Ravenclaw and Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff had returned, something Harry had learned with they were named as prefects.

Harry had also encountered Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson on the train, the only Slytherins who had returned to school besides Prefect Daphne Greengrass.

On Wednesday, Hermione had told him that Parvati Patil had also returned, something Harry had been surprised to hear since he hadn't seen Parvati at all. Then he asked what classes Parvati was taking: Divination, Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Potions.

Literally none of Harry's classes.

When Harry had asked Parvati why she had returned at breakfast yesterday, Parvati had suddenly gotten quiet.

"Last year was a joke." she had muttered softly. "Plus, it's what Lavender would have wanted."

In that moment, Harry realized that he had forgotten that Lavender had passed away in the aftermath of the Battle. Suddenly, Harry was reminded just how much the war had impacted everything. Everyone without exception had been affected, everyone had known someone who was no longer with them.

"It's good that you're back." Harry said gently. "It's strange seeing so few people that I recognize."

"I know. Is it just the three of us back in our house?"

"Yeah." Harry replied. "I think there are less than a dozen of us in the entire school."

"Last year, even though it was hell, we were all still here, you know?" Parvati replied. "I can't decide if I would rather be dealing with the Carrows again if it could mean that I could have all of my friends back."

"It's terrible that we even have to consider it." Harry admitted. "But I know that Lavender wouldn't want you to wish that."

"You're right." Parvati replied. "You know, we weren't always very nice to you, Harry."

"I wasn't necessarily much better to you." Harry countered. "We were kids. Now…"

"We're not." Parvati said, finishing Harry's sentence. "Why have we grown up so much?"

"A lot has happened since our first day at Hogwarts."

Something that had not changed from years past was the hoards of people trailing him. That had happened in the past but never like this. In one week, Harry had been late to class more often that he had over the course of an entire year before. First and second year students lined the hallways in advance of his passing, like peasants waiting for a conquering king. While Harry understood why they did it, Harry was an international celebrity after all, it certainly made his life more complicated, especially since he couldn't take points from students who got in his way.

He had already talked to McGonagall about his tardiness twice in the first week. Harry argued that he should be able to give detentions to anyone who stood his way. McGonagall agreed on the condition that he was willing to sit in on the detentions.

Harry figured he would rather be late than give every night of his life to sitting in detentions for wide-eyed first years who were seeing _Harry Potter, The Man Who Won_ for the first time. He only prayed that the novelty would wear off over time.

Overall, the biggest difference that Harry had noticed in the school, more than the lack of his old classmates or the hoards of people following him, was the open hostility between the students. While Harry would never feel bad for Parkinson or Nott, there had already been two instances of first year Slytherins being attacked by students from other Houses. While they had not been the intended targets (Nott had been the target in one instance and Greengrass, despite the fact that her family had not supported Voldemort, had been the target in the other), the people who had attacked hadn't particularly cared who was in the way when they had started firing spells.

Both attackers had been sent home for a month with their homework, allowing them to remain up to date with their classes but ensuring that they had the time to cool themselves off. Harry wasn't sure if that was enough of a punishment but it was what McGonagall had decided so Harry did not protest.

Unfortunately, as Harry was thinking about these attacks, he walked into the Great Hall just moments after breakfast started to a stunning sight: three Slytherins, including Parkinson and Greengrass, were pinned against the wall, only barely deflecting the spells that came flying at them from the group of ten students that stood across from them.

A quick look at the robes and Harry saw that all three of the other Houses were represented. He also saw that there were roughly twenty people standing by, simply watching as the Slytherins were pummeled into submission.

Harry hated few things. But a bully was the top of his list. Whether it be Dudley or Tom Riddle, bullies made Harry's blood boil. Their targets may have been Slytherins but they were clearly attacking someone who had no real chance of defending themselves.

Drawing his wand, Harry sprinted down the center of the Great Hall, throwing himself in the line of fire between the Slytherins and their attackers. After deflecting two Stunners that could have hit him, Harry aimed his wand towards the floor.

" _Protego Maxima!"_

A bubble formed around Harry only a few feet wide before rapidly expanding to a diameter of twenty feet, pushing everything out of the way that crossed its path.

That included the ten students that had been attacking.

Cancelling the shield, Harry leveled his wand at the first student, Disarming them and causing their wand to fly high in the air. As Harry caught the wand, he Disarmed another before using the wand he had just caught to Disarm a third. Quickly, the attackers realized just who had stepped in the way and immediately put their wands in the air, signalling their surrender.

While Harry had been relatively certain that he could have Disarmed all of them, he was glad that he didn't have to try and find out.

"That's enough!" Harry said, two wands in his wand as two others lie on the floor at his feet. Instantly, Harry turned to the oldest member of the attackers, a seventh year from Hufflepuff whose name was Michael.

"What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happened?" Harry repeated through gritted teeth. "What happened that you started attacking three people?"

"Nothing." Michael muttered.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing happened." Michael replied, his jaw firm and clenched in anger. "I'm a Muggleborn and for seven years, they've been mocking me for it. They deserve to know what that feels like."

Looking around the room, Harry saw that was the consensus of at least a fair portion of the room. Lowering his wand, Harry returned the wands of those that he had Disarmed.

"Look at me and listen." Harry said to the ten students who had attacked the Slytherins. "You will all be receiving detentions for this."

Immediately, they started protesting which Harry ended with a simple raise of his hand.

"I should report this to McGonagall and you _should_ be thrown out of school." Harry countered. "I want you to think about this. If a group of Slytherins had acted like you did today, we would all scream and yell and remark on how terrible they are. But today, you were the ones who were terrible."

"They spent years mocking us." Michael snapped back, clearly not satisfied with what Harry was saying. "They don't deserve to be punished for that?"

"They probably do." Harry admitted. "But what gives you the right to decide that punishment? There are systems in place for that kind of thing for a reason, Michael. Plus, put yourself in their shoes. Their whole world has been thrown upside down. For the entire history of the magical world, they have clearly been on top and everyone else has clearly not. That's not the case anymore. We don't need to remind them of that. I'm certain that Nott and Parkinson and all the others spend every day thinking about it."

Harry placed a hand on Michael's shoulder, despite the fact that the boy was nearly six inches taller than him.

"We won. Now, there are two ways that you can act. You can get your revenge, you can push them into the mud and let them know that they're the ones who are lower than dirt now." Harry said firmly. "You'll get your revenge and you'll feel better for a moment. But you won't mend any bridges doing that and in a year or ten or twenty, they'll eventually push back and we'll do this whole thing over again."

"Or you can be the bigger person and help them up. I know that they aren't going to treat you like equals. Maybe they never will and maybe in a year or ten or twenty, they'll still push back and we'll do this whole thing over again. But, there's a chance, just a chance, that if you treat them like humans, then they'll realize just how wrong they were about you. They'll realize how wrong they were about themselves. Consider yourselves lucky that none of them are hurt. If they would be, you would all likely be going home for the rest of term."

"Mr. Potter, is anything the matter?"

Every eye in the room suddenly turned to the voice belonging to Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, who stood in the entrance to The Great Hall. Clearly, there was something the matter. Harry was standing with ten students while three still remained in the corner where they had been forced, fearful that there was more to come. The two tables belonging to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had been pushed completely away from the center of the room, resting against the other tables, leaving a path nearly thirty feet wide in the center of the room where there was normally a small path between tables.

Harry turned to Michael and his friends.

"Is there a problem?" Harry whispered to them.

One by one, they looked at Harry then to the Slytherins in the corner and then back to Harry before shaking their hands. With a whip of his wand, the two large tables that had been pushed back by Harry returned to their spot.

"No, Headmistress, there is no problem."

"Good." McGonagall said curtly. "Come with me, please. I could use your assistance with something."

With one final look at Michael, Harry turned and followed McGonagall, who walked down the hall and entered an empty classroom. When Harry entered the room, he was treated to a strange sight: Professor McGonagall smiling.

"Well done, Harry." she said firmly. "Although I would have dealt with the students with a bit less flair, I believe that you handled yourself well."

"I was worried that they would do some serious damage to them if I didn't intervene." Harry replied. "How much did you see?"

"I was following you down the stairs from the Headmaster's Tower. I saw everything."

"You could have stepped in to help."

"I wanted to see what you would do." McGonagall admitted. "I know how Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived would respond and I was glad that I was not wrong. But this was my chance to see my Head Boy and future Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor in action."

"Anything wrong with my wandwork?" Harry joked.

"You misunderstand. The wandwork was Harry Potter. What you said afterwards, that was my new Defense Professor. You could have Stunned them all and left me to pick up the pieces, but you didn't. You could have reported them to me, for which I would have surely had to expel them, but you didn't. Given the opportunity to punish them and you chose mercy. I trusted Albus but our largest disagreement was over how some of our staff treated some of our students." McGonagall said, the corner of her mouth twitching. Harry could see that she was fighting back the words "Severus Snape."

"I will not tolerate my teachers punishing students for the sake of punishing them when educating them is always a better option. You chose wisely today, Harry. I hope that continues."

Harry stood, stunned by the words of what had always been his strictest teacher. As with over the summer, Harry knew that Professor McGonagall did not believe in idle flattery, which meant that he had earned the approval, even if only for a day, of his former Head of House, current Headmistress and future boss. If Harry was to make a career out of working at Hogwarts, there was no one more important to impress than Minerva McGonagall.

For one day, at least, Harry had accomplished that.

"Headmistress, this is now the third instance like this in less than a week. How do we stop it?"

"I am at a loss right now, Potter." McGonagall admitted. "Rest assured, that the staff will be considering any and all ideas. When we decided to reopen this year, we knew that attendance might be down and we knew that there would be some people who came back who did not necessarily support us in the war but this is far worse than I could have anticipated."

"But you did expect something like this. It's why you suspended the House Cup." Harry reasoned aloud.

"In a way. I expected that things would not immediately go back to the way they were. I also anticipated that we could use some collaboration among the Houses and the House Cup wouldn't have helped, although, if I'm being honest, the Slytherins were the ones that I worried about ending up in the negative."

"Hasn't been the case so far."

"If we're being honest, I don't know that Slytherin wouldn't be winning The House Cup at the moment if we had kept it going."

"We need an envoy: someone who can be trusted by both Slytherins and the rest of the school."

"What do you mean?"

"We could use someone who could help mediate these kind of situations. Obviously, we can talk to the other houses and find out what's going on behind the scenes, see if there's someone who is talking about hurting others or feels particularly slighted by someone in Slytherin. But if we're being honest, none of us really know any of the Slytherins that well. We need someone who could report to use if some of the Slytherins are thinking of retaliating."

"Who do you have in mind?" McGonagall said skeptically.

"I'm not exactly certain." Harry admitted. "Most of the Slytherins are related to someone who fought for either side. There is one possibility that comes to mind."

"Who?"

"Daphne Greengrass."

"Do you even know her?" McGonagall asked.

"No. But Daphne Greengrass is a Prefect. She's a Pureblood, she's a Slytherin and yet, from what I've heard, her family never outright supported Voldemort."

"Quite the opposite, in fact." McGonagall replied as if she knew more than she was letting on. It gave her a very "Dumbledore-esque" vibe. "I've known Solomon Greengrass and his family for a long time. Being Pureblood, he knew better than to outright revolt from Voldemort's ranks. But during the occupation, he was actively helping Muggleborns by giving them sanctuary in his home. If the Ministry had ever suspected that he was helping us, they would have killed his whole family."

"So what about Daphne? I don't really know anything about her. But if we could get something together, something that would show that we were united and that not all Slytherins are terrible people, it might just help keep heads cooler for a little while."

"It's a good idea." McGonagall admitted. "Reach out to her."

"Me?"

"It's your idea, Mr. Potter." McGonagall reasoned. "Besides, there's a large difference between an instructor asking for this kind of assistance and a peer. We want Daphne to help but more importantly, we need Daphne to _want_ to help. In the meantime, the staff and I will talk about it and try to come up with better ways of supporting the students during this time of tribulation. Speaking of which, staff meetings occur every Sunday evening at eight in the staff lounge. I expect you to be there on time, take notes and not utter a single word unless you are directly asked a question."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Harry, I am going to allow you one other indulgence that I allow of my staff."

"And that is?"

"I tire of hearing Professor and ma'am and such all day." McGonagall admitted. "For the remainder of this year, when the two of us meet or during those staff meetings, feel free call me by my given name."

Harry clearly couldn't hide the shock of being told to call the Headmis-Minerva by her first name as McGonagall rolled her eyes at him.

"Do not let it slip in front of the other students." Minerva said with a smirk.

"Yes, ma'am-I mean, Minerva."

"Good." Minerva replied. "Keep up the good work, Harry. I know it's only one week but I am very pleased with what I'm seeing from you."

"Thank you."

The rest of Harry's day proceeded as normal. After an interesting hour spent removing the effects of a particularly nasty bout of accidental magic by an overly excited first year during his Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Harry sat through an hour of Charms where Professor Flitwick said they would be starting work on their understanding of the Fidelius Charm, a notoriously complex spell to cast.

He also said that it would be by far the easiest Charm they would learn all year, the thought of which made Harry's head spin.

After a long first week at Hogwarts, Harry knew that he was in for the hardest year of his life, the year he spent on the run for his life notwithstanding. Still, Harry had duties besides his classwork, particularly his regularly assigned evening patrol. The Head Boy and Girl, along with the Prefects, were in charge of patrolling the corridors of the school for the two hours before and immediately after the curfew bell rang. One of Harry's regularly scheduled patrols was two hours before the curfew on Friday night.

As Harry wandered the empty Hogwarts halls, his mind wandered to Ron. It had already been a week at Hogwarts. On one hand, it felt like it had been a year. This week had certainly been the hardest week of schooling in his entire life and they had barely gotten past going through the syllabus. At the same time, the intensity of his classes meant that time seemed to have flown by.

Harry wondered if the same could be said for classes at the Auror Academy. Even though Harry was excited by the work that he would get to do one day, there was still a part of him that felt that he should have been at the Auror Academy, preparing to save the world once more. Harry could only hope that Ron and Neville and the others were as excited about their futures as Harry was about his.

There was no doubt that Defense was where Harry's skill lie. Even as far back as third year, it had been the one subject where he had always excelled. Try as she might, even Dolores Umbridge hadn't been able to keep Harry from getting the top score in the class. While Hermione was by far the most gifted student in their year (which was still the case despite the combined classes), it could be argued that Harry was as talented at Defense as any of the subjects in which Hermione excelled.

Unfortunately, Defense was a class that had only two real-life applications: becoming an Auror or teaching Defense. Harry was just lucky enough to be presented with one of those options.

The castle was quiet for the hour that Harry was on patrol. Once he was done wandering the halls, he returned to his shared living space with Hermione. Not surprisingly, Hermione was studying, reading some text on ancient Greek runes that she needed to finish by Monday morning. Knowing that he needed to get some work done as well, Harry grabbed two of the books on advanced dueling techniques that Bill and Fleur had assigned to be read by the end of the month. Both books were massive tomes dedicated to the art of dueling and how to work with others while dueling.

It was an awful book full of pointless information that Harry had figured out years ago. But, Harry also had far more dueling experience than any seventh year had any business possessing. But Harry knew that Bill and Fleur wouldn't assign something like this if there wasn't a purpose and so for at least an hour, Harry drudged on until he couldn't stand it anymore.

Finally, he slammed his book closed and turned to Hermione.

"Do you want to go to the Common Room?"

"We're in the Common Room, Harry." Hermione replied with a smile. "That's why I can see you right now."

"I mean the Gryffindor Common Room."

"You know everyone is going to stare you, right?"

"Everyone already stares at me. What else is new?" Harry asked. "We've gotten through our first week of classes and it's just the two of us."

"What's wrong with it being just the two of us?" Hermione questioned.

"Nothing. But I just...I want things to be normal. I know they aren't going to be. I know that most of our class isn't coming back. I know that Ron isn't coming back. But if I could get my ass kicked by Ginny in a game of Exploding Snap while Parvati loudly ranks the boys in Hufflepuff based on their looks, then things will seem normal just for the rest of the night."

"I can get behind that." Hermione admitted. "Plus, I always enjoy watching you lose at Exploding Snap. You get so frustrated."

"Well, then after I play Ginny, I can play you."

"Unlikely."

Harry and Hermione grabbed a change of clothes and tossed them into a bag before leaving their Common Room just a few minutes before curfew, nearly sprinting so they arrived at The Fat Lady just moments before the curfew bell rang. Once they delivered the password ("The Chosen One"), they entered the Gryffindor Common Room for the first time since they had left it in the days after the Battle of Hogwarts.

Immediately, Harry noticed two things. First, the Common Room had undergone a relatively radical redesign. Instead of the wall of the far side of the room separating the stairs that climbed to the Boys and Girls dorms, there was now a massive window that overlooked the grounds. As Harry walked over to the window, he couldn't help but wonder why this hadn't been there the whole time. Clearly, the window had been a replacement for the one wall that had been destroyed and haphazardly replaced after The Battle of Hogwarts. Still, it was a wonderful design choice that allowed the Gryffindors the ability to see almost the entirety of the grounds.

The other thing that Harry noticed was that there were so many people in the Gryffindor Common Room that Harry didn't know. Obviously, with only three members of his original class still in school, that certainly limited the number of people that Harry would know immediately. But Harry didn't know any of the first or second years (although he was working on getting their names while they were in Defense) and his knowledge of the third year class was limited.

The only fourth year that Harry could readily identify was a boy named Euan who had been sorted into Gryffindor during his fifth year.

Jimmy Peakes and Dennis Creevey were both fifth years that Harry recognized and Romilda Vane, who sat in the corner with her posse of harpies and was actively eyeing Harry lecherously, was the only sixth year he could name.

Even among the seventh years, a fair number had decided not to return to Hogwarts, leaving only Ginny Weasley as the sole seventh year that Harry could name. There should have been one more but Colin wasn't around anymore. So many students were gone for one reason or another, making the whole castle feel a bit like a ghost town.

There were over seventy people in Gryffindor House and once you counted Parvati, the only member of his class other than Hermione to return, Harry could name six people, seven if you counted Hermione.

In a sense, Harry supposed this would make transitioning to teaching easier. He would have less of his former classmates or teammates in his classes. By the time that Harry was officially installed as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, most of the students that Harry could name would be gone, off to their own adult lives.

Harry noticed Ginny and Parvati sitting in the chairs by the fire. The rest of the room seemed separate from them, as if they didn't dare get too close.

"What's the deal?" Harry asked as he and Hermione sat on the couch between them.

"I'm the only member of last year's version Dumbledore's Army who returned. Among those who lead the group anyway." Ginny explained. "I think I intimidate some of them. They look at me and they see my brothers or they see you."

"Or they see you, Gin." Parvati countered. "You have quite the legend yourself now."

"What about you?"

"Lavender was like my sister. In fact, over the years, she may have become closer to me than my own twin." Parvati explained. "Almost everyone that's back at school this year were escorted out of the castle before the Battle started in earnest. None of them were here for the battle itself. But they all knew Colin and Lavender. It's why they're giving Dennis the same treatment."

Looking towards where Parvati's head had motioned, Harry saw Dennis sitting in the corner, alone. He had a book in his hands but one look at his eyes and Harry could tell that he had stopped reading a long time ago. He had that same thousand yard stare, the same one that had greeted him in the mirror after Cedric had died.

The same one that Harry saw on all of their faces after The Battle. For most of them, the look had worn off. Even Parvati was able to fake a smile most of the time. But Dennis clearly couldn't.

"Has anyone tried to talk to him?"

"He answers." Ginny said with a nod. "But he hasn't gone out of his way to talk to anyone since he arrived. In fact, I'm surprised that he's still down here."

"Friday nights were Colin's favorite." Hermione said suddenly, causing the others to look at him. "His first year, the year the Chamber was opened, Fred and George would put on a show each Friday night. They said they did it to work on their future stage show but I think we all knew they did it to keep morale up, considering a stage production never really materialized from either of them. Anyway, Colin watched those every single Friday night. When Dennis joined Gryffindor, his brother made him stay down here every Friday until Fred and George did their routine. Now, well, it's Friday night. The twins are gone and so is Colin-"

"But Dennis is still here." Harry muttered sadly. Dennis had grown up as a member of the worst class in Hogwarts history. His first year ended with the return of Voldemort, Umbridge was hired in his second and Dumbledore died at the end of his third.

His fourth year was just as terrible for him as it was for everyone else. This was the first year that he even had a chance of having a normal year but the loss of his brother was crushing any chance of that.

Harry stood and marched across the room. He knew that every eye in the room followed him as he did but in that moment, Harry really couldn't have cared. Colin Creevey may have been a bit obsessed but there was no question that he had always supported and believed in Harry.

While Harry couldn't return the favor to him personally, he could do his best with his brother.

"Dennis." Harry whispered as he approached the younger Creevey brother.

No reaction.

"Dennis." Harry said again. This time, Dennis snapped out of his stare and flashed a million dollar smile in Harry's direction, clearly trying to put on a good show for him.

It wasn't going to work.

"Harry. Hi."

"Do you want to come and join us by the fire?"

"Nah." Dennis said sheepishly before gesturing to his book. "Really riveting stuff, you know?"

"Dennis, you haven't read that book in at least ten minutes."

"Sure I have!" Dennis shot back defensively.

Harry's only reply was a look that conveyed all the empathy that Harry could find while also letting Dennis know that Harry knew that he was lying. Harry had never had a brother, not a biological one anyone, but more than anyone else, Harry understood how loss could affect you.

"I'm really okay, Harry." Dennis added when he saw the look on Harry's face. "It's just...taking awhile to get back to the way things were."

Harry kneeled down in front of Dennis and took the book from his hands.

"Dennis, we both know that things aren't going to go back to the way things were." Harry replied with warmth. "It never does. It didn't for me. Not when Cedric died and not when Sirius died and not when any of the people that died at the Battle died. This is the new normal."

"How do you live with it?" Dennis said, suddenly full of fear.

"You keep moving forward." Harry replied. "And you don't try and do it alone."

Dennis nodded as tears started streaming down his face. Harry leaned forward and hugged the boy, letting him mourn his wonderfully crazy brother on his shoulder.

"I'm not ready to go over there." Dennis admitted, whispering in his ear. "I just...I don't know how to do it."

"That's fine." Harry said as Dennis pulled away. "Just know that when you are ready, we'll all be there."

Harry returned the book to Dennis' hands before turning around and joining the others on the couch. For the rest of the night, Harry kept an eye on Dennis. While he never did end up joining them at the fire, Harry hoped that the advice that he had given Dennis had gotten through.

Even the great Harry Potter was still adjusting. But as he looked to Hermione and Ginny and Parvati and the rest of his Gryffindor family, he knew that he was not alone either.

Right now, that's all he could ask of the world.


	18. Eighteen

For Harry's first six years at Hogwarts, weekends were a time for homework, early morning Quidditch practices, Exploding Snap, Wizard's Chess and any number of other random activities. Harry supposed that eventually he might return to some of those activities as his coursework kept him in the castle more often than not.

But until that happened, Harry would gladly take some time away from the castle and away from the prying eyes of the other Hogwarts students. So, rather than join the rest of his class in the Gryffindor Common Room for the weekend, Harry woke up, said a brief goodbye to Hermione and then climbed the stairs to Minerva's office where he was able to quickly Floo back to Grimmauld Place.

It had only been a week since Harry had been at the ancestral home of the Black family but it had felt like an eternity. For the few years after Sirius' death, Harry had always slightly resented Grimmauld Place because it reminded him of how much Sirius had hated the place. While it still lacked the warmth of the Burrow (and likely would never obtain such an essential place in his heart), it had developed a special place in his heart: a place that was his to control and to protect him from the publicity of the rest of the world.

Only a few moments after Harry had walked out the fireplace, Cho entered through the front door, an overnight bag on one shoulder and a armfull of groceries in the other. Rather than go out to dinner like usual, Cho had requested that the pair of them stay in and simply enjoy each other's company.

Harry's mind had immediately gone blank when he thought of what he would do with just one other person for the whole weekend. Once Cho put her bags down, she made a beeline for Harry and reminded him just what you can accomplish with only one other person and entire house to yourself.

By the time the two of them had finally worn each other out, it was mid-day and Harry made his way to the kitchen to start fixing lunch. When Cho finally came down the stairs after a quick shower, she took a seat at the table and simply watched Harry work on the sandwiches that he was preparing.

Finally, just as Harry finished making their food, she spoke up.

"So how did your first week go?"

"It was...different." Harry said before biting into his sandwich

"How?"

"Just a little bit of everything." Harry replied through his food. "No Dumbledore, McGonagall isn't teaching anymore-Viktor Krum is the new Transfiguration professor by the way."

"Really? I thought he was still playing Quidditch in Greece?"

"I think he is." Harry replied. "The season in Greece is only about five months long and all the games are on Saturdays. Wouldn't surprise me if he'll end up taking a Portkey back to Greece for the weekends to play in his matches."

"Why would he take a job at Hogwarts though?"

"From what I gathered from the few times we've spoken, he never really felt at home at Durmstrang. Still, he's clearly bright and gifted and teaching at a school like Hogwarts that values his abilities outside of casting hexes might be appealing."

"Seems a bit hum drum after the appeal of international Quidditch fame." Cho countered.

"Maybe that's the point." Harry replied knowingly. "It's just been a lot of changes, especially since I've gone from being a general student to Head Boy and basically a staff member in a week."

"I can see how that would be a confusing transition." Cho said with a smirk.

"Something like that. Anyway, how has life been for you?"

"Chaos." Cho said, rolling her eyes. "I had to beg Meredith to even let me skip work today."

"It's a Saturday."

"Yes, but some of the Death Eaters are being transferred to the Ministry today to start processing them for their testimony next week."

"Why aren't they just being transferred the day of their testimony?"

"Because the day of their testimony has to be made public." Cho reasoned. "If the Death Eaters wanted to try something, they would know exactly when to target the Ministry. Now, the Death Eaters that are testifying this week are all being transferred at once with a caravan of Aurors."

"How many?" Harry asked.

"Quite a few. That's up to Meredith, Robards and the logistics team. But I know they had to pull some from Azkaban to accompany them to the Ministry."

"No one is worried about leaving Azkaban unattended?"

"It's not. Today was a mandatory work day for every single Auror in the Department. Trust me, the number of Death Eaters that could possibly attack either the Ministry or Azkaban would be so outmanned three to one."

"Yes, but Death Eaters like to kill people." Harry countered.

"Well, the Aurors won't be pulling their punches today if something would happen. As it is, it's a relatively small group of people who have all the information. Harry, there's nothing to worry about."

Just as she said that, a rather official looking owl came rushing into the kitchen, dropping a letter in Cho's lap before disappearing from the direction it had came. Cho looked suddenly very worried as she tore the envelope open and read the parchment inside.

"I have to go." she finally said as she finished, setting the letter on fire as she raced up the stairs. Only seconds later, she came back down the stairs, fully dressed and nearly ran passed Harry to the door.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"I can't tell you." Cho answered curtly, an answer that Harry did not appreciate. When she saw the look on Harry's face, she relented. "Harry, do you trust me?"

"Yes." Harry replied.

"Then know that there's a good reason why I can't tell you. It would cost me my job if you knew before everyone else. I already told you too much as it was."

"I don't want to get you into trouble."

"You will find out by Monday morning anyway. Look at the Prophet." Cho said as she kissed Harry quickly. "I'll talk to you later."

In a flash, the door opened and closed with a slam, leaving Harry standing alone. Unfortunately, whatever had pulled Cho away from him kept her attention the entire weekend. Still, Harry waited until Monday morning came and then returned to Hogwarts for his second week of class. As usual, about halfway through breakfast, the mail came, a wave of owls fluttering over the students, dropping dozens of parcels.

One of those packages landed in front of Harry. It was a copy of The Daily Prophet with a note attached to the front of it.

 _You were right to be worried._

 _Cho_

Instantly, Harry flipped the paper opened and read the article on the front page.

 _ **DEATH EATERS ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN**_

 _At roughly ten thirty Saturday morning, in the minutes after a group of Death Eaters were escorted to the Ministry from Azkaban, a group of fugitive Death Eaters, led by Alecto Carrow and Walden MacNair, attacked Azkaban. There were estimated to be near fifty members in the raiding party, most of them believed to be foreign wizarding mercenaries, matched up against a host of twenty-five Aurors, according to Head Auror Gawain Robards._

 _Of the twenty-five Aurors, twelve managed to escape with their lives, although Healers at St. Mungo's believe that only half that number will ever return to active service. The names of the deceased have not yet been released._

 _In the chaos, roughly half of the imprisoned Death Eaters managed to escape. Of these, the most notorious is Antonin Dolohov._

 _Dolohov is widely known for being Lord Voldemort's most trusted assassin. With the deaths of Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange, it is believed that Dolohov has become the new leader of the Death Eaters, a fact supported by multiple independent claims that the attackers focused their attention once inside the prison on finding Dolohov._

 _With five members of Voldemort's Inner Circle already on the loose, Dolohov and his compatriots Rabastan Lestrange, Corbin Yaxley and Fenrir Greyback increase the number of high ranking Death Eaters on the run to nine. While none of them were as close to Voldemort as Bellatrix Lestrange, all were valued by the Dark Lord enough to be kept alive after years of servitude, suggesting a great dedication to Voldemort's mission and his belief._

 _In a brief statement to the Daily Prophet, Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt said:_

" _Tom Riddle's death did not end this war. There are still out there that believe in his message and until they have been captured and brought to justice, The Ministry of Magic and the Aurors are committed to doing everything we can to do just that. As it stands, the Auror Department is the largest it has been in years and come December, we will be graduating the largest class of new Aurors from the Academy in over two hundred years."_

" _To the Death Eaters, I warn you that if you remain in our country, you will be found, you will be captured and you will be found guilty of every one of your heinous crimes. If you continue your reign of terror, the last thing you will ever see will be an Auror or the back of a cell in Azkaban. There is nowhere that you can go that we will not find you and no lengths that we will not go to ensure that happens."_

 _Meredith Breckinridge, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was unavailable for comment. Cho Chang, Senior Adviser to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, stated that the Death Eater Tribunal will begin today as planned._

This news was about the worst kind of news that Harry could have imagined. While he had known something was wrong when he had seen Cho's face, the idea that several of Riddle's most dangerous Death Eaters were now on the loose was terrifying.

Harry turned to Hermione, who had been reading over his shoulder, and noticed that she looked just as scared as he felt.

"This is bad." Ginny said softly. "This is really bad."

"We're at war again." Hermione added before turning to Harry: "It really didn't end, did it?"

"I think we wanted it to." Harry replied. "But Kingsley is right. Until the Death Eaters are all captured, then we won't ever really be at peace."

"But the Death Eaters went years without being caught before." Ginny exclaimed nervously.

"Yes, but that's because they had Lucius running interference for them. Anyone that dares do that will certainly be discovered now." Harry replied. "And whoever let the Death Eaters know that Azkaban would be weaker is either already killed by the Death Eaters or about to spend the rest of his life next to a Death Eater in Azkaban."

Just as Harry said this, Professor McGonagall appeared behind Harry. The look on her face betrayed no panic but Harry could see something there, in her eyes, that unsettled Harry.

She looked afraid.

"Potter, Granger, Weasley: follow me."

Instantly, all three did what McGonagall had asked, standing from their seats and following the Headmistress as she left the Great Hall and climbed the stairs towards her office. As they walked, Harry couldn't help but think about one thing.

Potter, Granger, Weasley: for years, that had meant Harry, Hermione and Ron. Now, with Harry and Ron barely speaking and Ron off at the Auror Academy, Harry realized just how much Ginny had replaced her brother in his inner circle of friends. Certainly, there was a different history between Harry and Ginny that wasn't there with Ron but there was no question that Ginny was now one of his closest friends.

Their history wasn't as long nor as intense but she had been there when he had needed her. For the time being, that's all Harry could ask of anyone.

When they entered the Headmistress' office (Password: Fawkes), McGonagall motioned for the three of them to sit.

"You all saw the news?" McGonagall asked as she sat. The three nodded in confirmation. "This is not the worst thing that could have happened but it is certainly not a positive sign."

"How did the Death Eaters know?" Harry asked.

"Minister Shacklebolt said that one of the Aurors was paid a rather large sum of gold in order to let Macnair know when Azkaban would be weak."

"Where did they get the gold? The Malfoys don't have any money right now." Hermione questioned.

"That's a good question and I'm certain that Kingsley is asking the same question right now." McGonagall replied. "Right now, my concern is the safety of the students at this school, which is why I asked the three of you here."

McGonagall, already not a young woman when she took the Headmistress post, looked particularly harassed at the moment. She spoke with a weight that she managed to hide well from others. It spoke highly of the three in the room that she felt comfortable enough with them to forgo her normal acting job and was able to express just how worried she was.

Just as McGonagall looked to open her mouth, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Harry turned to see Daphne Greengrass, the Slytherin prefect, enter the room. Clearly, she was surprised to see the three of them there.

"Professor Calhoun said that you wanted to see me."

"That I do." McGonagall replied before looking at Harry. "I was going to let you make the first contact but with the news of today, I decided that it was time to act decisively."

"Makes sense." Harry said as Daphne took a seat in a chair next to Hermione that McGonagall conjured for her.

"Thank you for coming, Ms. Greengrass." McGonagall said firmly. "We're here to discuss the news of the breakout at Azkaban and what that means for Hogwarts."

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"It means that the school is likely in danger again." McGonagall replied. "I was in school with Antonin Dolohov. He was a few years older than I but he was not a student that anyone is likely to forgot. Unlike the bulk of Riddle's pack of followers, Dolohov placed no value on magical blood. He simply believed in raw power and the influence that it could get you. When Riddle graduated and left his lackeys behind, all of them gravitated to Dolohov. In fact, if Riddle had not existed, Dolohov may have been the dark wizard of the age. Only a power as great as Riddle could have kept Dolohov from attempting to take what he believed was rightfully his."

"Why are you telling us, Professor?" Daphne asked.

"Because while Riddle was a megalomaniac, Dolohov is no such thing. He is exact in his planning and ruthless in its execution. I have no doubt that Dolohov, if he is truly in charge of the Death Eaters, will make Hogwarts a prime target of his. He understands the value that Hogwarts has to the people of our countries and knows that if he can bring it to its knees, he will be seen as a figure worth following."

"I have already asked Minister Shacklebolt for an another group of Aurors to be stationed at the castle, in addition to those who are already here. Unfortunately, the Minister does not believe that he will be able to accommodate that request with the number of Aurors being brought back into the Ministry to begin the investigation and manhunt for the remaining Death Eaters."

"So you want us to do what exactly?" Harry asked.

"The four of you are some of the brightest students in the school. You are also leaders and this school is now asking more of you as leaders." McGonagall answered. "The number of Prefects on duty each evening will double. Professors will be constantly patrolling through the night to ensure that there are no break-ins. But the thing I must ask of you is of the utmost importance: I need you to create an evacuation plan for the school."

"Excuse me?" Ginny spat out, covering her mouth when she realized how disrespectful she had sounded.

"I know that this may seem like an odd task for four students." McGonagall added, ignoring Ginny. "However, I have already tasked the staff with more than they can handle. Professor Flitwick is organizing an emergency response team in case there is an attack on the castle. Professor Calhoun is being tasked with the defense of Hogsmeade while Bill and Fleur Weasley will be working with myself and Professor Sprout to organize a plan in case the Ministry is once again overtaken."

"The rest of our staff are not fighters. While they are immensely talented individuals, they do not have any experience in these kind of matters."

"What makes you think that I do?" Daphne interjected, her arms crossed in front of the Slytherin crest on her chest.

"Because I saw you sneak back inside the castle and help the students escape during the Battle of Hogwarts. I also saw what happened to Thorfinn Rowle."

Immediately, Daphne's pale skin went red and her eyes dropped to the floor at the mention of the giant Death Eater.

"You will feel no shame for your actions that day, Miss Greengrass. You saved people's lives that day which is why I know that I can trust you with this task." McGonagall added. "If and when something would happen to this school, the four of you would be entrusted with the safety of the students while the professors deal with whatever threat has been presented to us."

"Headmistress, I-" Harry started before McGonagall interrupted.

"You want to assist with the defense of the school." McGonagall said, reading Harry's thoughts. "I understand your enthusiasm for taking down Death Eaters, Mr. Potter. However, this is where I need you. More than any student at this school, you are aware of the nooks and crannies of this castle."

The look on McGonagall's face let Harry know that she knew all about the Marauder's Map, which rest safely in Harry's chest. It was also clear that the Headmistress was testing Harry. In fact, Harry realized that likely every interaction he would have with the former Transfiguration Professor from now until he was officially made the Defense Professor would be a test.

Harry was committed to passing every single one of them.

"I understand." Harry confirmed. "We should meet to discuss the easiest ways to get the students out of the school and how exactly we get them away from the castle."

"Anything you need: ask and you shall receive." McGonagall commanded. "If the castle falls, it can be rebuilt. If its students fall, then Hogwarts and everything that it stands for will fall with it."

"Yes, Headmistress." all four students echoed in unison.

"Miss Granger and Miss Weasley, thank you for coming. I expect that Mr. Potter will request your presence for your first planning meeting shortly."

Ginny and Hermione quickly looked at each other before turning to Harry, who just shrugged. Quickly, the pair of Gryffindors walked out of the office, leaving Harry alone with McGonagall and Daphne.

"We have another issue to discuss, Miss Greengrass." McGonagall said before turning to Harry and motioning for him to speak. For a moment, Harry paused, uncertain of how exactly to proceed.

"You've noticed that there's been a lot of tension in the castle, right?"

"Yes." Daphne replied, looking at Harry like he was the stupidest man on the planet.

"Yes, of course you have." Harry said, his face flushing red with embarrassment. "I meant to say that we, that is Professor McGonagall and myself, would like your help with that."

"How?"

"We would like to figure out a way to mend the...relationship between Slytherin and the other houses." Harry explained. "I don't know exactly _how_ we go about doing that but if we want students to survive the year without killing each other, we need to do something."

Daphne seemed to consider Harry's words for a moment before turning to McGonagall.

"Do I have permission to speak freely?"

"Of course."

"This school is tired of you."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't mean that the way it sounded." Daphne replied. "But for seven consecutive years, this school has basically been dominated by whatever you were doing."

"I was trying not to die mostly." Harry chuckled.

"I know that. In fact, most of the students know that. The ones that aren't stupid anyway." Daphne replied. "But there are a lot of students that don't want you around because you bring...risk. You attract danger and attention. Even now, Dolohov breaks out and there's no doubt that he's going to want to come after you."

"I know."

"So if you want to help fix the relationship between the houses, there's one simple way to start: Don't."

"How….what….I don't know what you mean."

"You can help fix the relationship. You just can't be _seen_ helping to fix the relationship."

"Why?"

"People want to feel like they're in control of their lives. Plus, the Slytherins will never follow you, even if they don't believe in all that Pureblood nonsense."

"So who would you recommend? Who's the person to help get everyone on the same side?"

"I don't know if there's any one person that needs to do the job." Daphne replied. "I think we just need a few things that remind us that we're all students here. Things that keep us in check and clue us in on the fact that we're all going to have to play well together after we leave school."

"So something like an internal Triwizard tournament?"

"How do you mean?" McGonagall asked.

"Well, the idea of the Tournament is to inspire school pride." Harry said. "Each school gets a Champion and they all unite behind their champion, bonding them together."

"To be clear, I never wore a _POTTER STINKS!_ badge." Daphne claimed.

McGonagall chuckled a bit to herself. "I like the idea. Maybe we try something else."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"A dueling tournament." Daphne interrupted. "Take anyone that's interested in the tournament and throw them all out there. Eventually, it will get knocked down to just two students and at that point, people will have to root for someone."

"Especially if we give them a villain to root against." Harry said, a thought suddenly forming in his mind.

"Who?"

"It's simple. Who is the one person in this school that everyone resents? The one person who has caused a ton of trouble for everyone over the years?"

"You." both McGonagall and Daphne said at the same time.

Harry turned to Daphne. "You said that I need to help by not helping, right? Organize the tournament so that the four houses have to fight each other. This means that you can't have a championship with two people from the same house. The winner of that tournaments get to duel me."

"Everyone will root for you to lose." Daphne said, suddenly realizing what Harry meant.

"Exactly."

"If you win-"

"If I win, then someone, a student who won a tournament of their peers, fair and square, got to duel Harry Potter, The Man Who Killed Voldemort. Hell, we could even host a Yule Ball the next night and introduce the champion just like we did for the Triwizard Tournament."

Harry and Daphne turned to McGonagall who was smiling at the pair of them. Clearly, she had known more than she was letting on when she introduced the two of them to start thinking.

"I will start the preparations and make the announcement sometime in October. The final duel will take place on the last Thursday before break with the Yule Ball on the last Friday."

McGonagall stood, a wide smile on her face.

"Daphne, I would like you to know that it was Harry who recommended you to help bridge the gap between the houses. Harry, I was not entirely honest when I said that I had known the Greengrass family for a long time. You see, Daphne is my goddaughter."

Harry looked at McGonagall, dumbfounded that he had been played as well as he had. He turned and saw that Daphne had a similar look on her face.

"The two of you are a good team and I expect great things from the both of you. Daphne, will you be willing to be my student adviser on this tournament?"

"Of course."

"Wonderful." McGonagall grinned. "Harry, when the news of this tournament comes out-"

"Don't worry. Everyone will know that I expect to win." Harry smirked. For years, he had played the hero. Now, even if it was only for show, Harry would relish playing the antagonist.

"Very good. Now, both of you, well done and get out of my sight."

Laughing at the blunt nature of the Headmistress, Harry did as she asked and went about the next two days with nothing of any real interest occurring. In fact, the only thing that Harry spent anytime working on was his Defense Against the Dark Arts presentation, which was due Wednesday.

On the first day of class, Bill and Fleur had detailed what the year would be like. While they would certainly learn a lot about the history of Dark magic, they would also be learning certain techniques that would help counter the most advanced forms of magic.

However, the bulk of their grade would be an individual project. Each student was required to select an overarching theme for their project. It could be an Auror or a Dark Wizard or a particular branch of magic. Then, starting in November, each person would be required to give a presentation or a demonstration of their project once each month for the rest of the school year. If your chosen field was magic, it was expected that you could either demonstrate the ability or explain the theory behind it if the ability was too difficult or too dangerous to perform in school.

For the entire first week of school, Harry had thought about what he wanted his project to be until late Sunday evening, inspiration struck Harry and gave him the exact topic that he wished to cover over the next few months. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evening had been dedicated to the creation of his plan so that when Harry sat in his Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Wednesday morning, Harry was actually excited to present, a first for certain.

The topics covered by most of the students fit on either end of the spectrum. Either they chose something entire ridiculous, like Ginny who would be studying the different kind of Cursed Objects (like a Blood Quill) in the world, while other students chose something predictably boring like Voldemort's rise to power.

After nearly falling asleep during the presentation by a Slytherin seventh-year named Richard Brooks, Bill moved to the front of the class.

"Harry, I believe you are the only one left."

"Yes, sir." Harry said before marching to the front of the room. The class was small. Only fifteen students between all four houses had made it to the Defense NEWT Level, an especially impressive feat when you consider that Harry and Hannah were both a year delayed in their seventh year studies.

"There were a lot of subjects that I could have picked for this project. Personally, I've seen a lot of Dark magic in my time." Harry said to mixed laughs in the room. "At first, I thought about doing something on Voldemort or maybe even studying Dumbledore. Instead, I thought about studying something a little different."

"For my project, I will be studying myself."

Immediately, the room burst into an awkward laughter, clearly uncertain of what Harry meant but sure that it was funny enough at that. A single look from Fleur made it clear that Harry had better be going somewhere with this line of thinking besides just giving a report on his life each month.

So, Harry continued.

"I don't mean the history of myself but the magic that I've seen. Over the course of my journey to defeat Voldemort, I worked with witches and wizards far more skilled than I. Without them, I would certainly be dead and Voldemort-well, we'll never know." Harry said, deflecting from the thought of the future if he hadn't been able to kill Voldemort. "Those people, people like Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody and Bill and Fleur Weasley showed me some magnificent pieces of magic. Even Voldemort himself showed me some things that I thought weren't possible."

"The first subject I will cover is that of wandless magic, used by Albus Dumbledore on a number of occasions while in my presence. Second, I will be presenting on a spell known only as The Firestorm, again showed to me by Albus Dumbledore in a particular moment of need."

An image in his mind, Dumbledore with flames surrounding him, flashed before his eyes, a living reminder of the power the former Headmaster had wielded.

"In January, I will cover wards. Now, wards and the breaking of wards are not an inherently dark piece of magic. In fact, they are typically exceedingly helpful. However, Hermione Granger created a series of wards that protected us while we hid from the Snatchers while we were on the run. Next, I will cover unsupported flight. In the past, it was believed to be impossible but I witnessed both Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape perform this ability. My theory is that it is some sort of enchantment that allows them to do this but there is also the possibility that it is some form of Dark magic."

"March will be water manipulation, another Dumbledore skill, shown to me at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Not only did Dumbledore conjure water out of thin air, but he was able to manipulate it in ways that I've never seen before, using it to stop Fiendfyre, which will by April presentation."

"My final presentation will be a skill that I cannot name. You see, in the preliminary research that I've done, the only person in recorded history to produce this spell was me on the day that I escaped from my aunt and uncle's house for the last time." Harry said cryptically. Only Bill, Fleur and Ginny knew exactly what he meant but it was enough information for his professors to know what he would be talking about.

"My personal goal is that by the end of the year, I will understand the magic that helped keep me alive and also the magic done by those who would have tried to kill me."

"That seems like a worthy goal."

That voice didn't belong to Bill. Instead, Harry looked to his left where Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt stood, a knowing smile on his face.

"Pardon me, Professors." Kingsley said. "Would you mind if I borrowed Mr. Potter?"

"We were about done, Minister." Fleur replied before turning to the class. "You are all dismissed. Please begin work on your presentations and remember to 'ave read the next two chapters of your dueling text before our next meeting."

The reaction of the class was hilarious. At least half of them had never been in the same place as the Minister of Magic, let alone the same room. As this group packed up their materials, they stared at Kingsley the entire time, looks of shock and awe on their face.

This was contrasted by people like Ginny who hugged Kingsley as she left the room.

Bill and Fleur were the last people to leave the room, each of them whispering something in Kingsley's ear as they left, leaving Harry alone with the Minister of Magic in a Hogwarts classroom.

"Dumbledore would be proud of your choice in project."

"I hope so." Harry said honestly. "At least half of the project are things that he did."

"So I heard." Kingsley answered warmly.

"Minister, I can assume that you aren't here to talk about my schoolwork." Harry replied, taking a seat behind the desk that Bill or Fleur normally occupied. "Take a seat."

Harry pointed to the chair next to the desk with a wide smile. Kingsley laughed warmly and then did as he was asked, sitting in the chair normally reserved for students who were struggling with their homework. Harry couldn't help but enjoy the fact that he had the Minister of Magic sitting in that same chair.

"You seem comfortable in that chair."

"I am liking my schoolwork and I've enjoyed the very limited amount of teaching I've gotten to do so far." Harry replied. "So if you're here to ask me to join the Aurors again, hoping that I was regretting my decision to return to school, you'll be sorely mistaken."

"I'm not here to ask and I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your return to Hogwarts. According to Minerva, you are excelling at all aspects of your role here at school, despite the many challenges she has thrown your way."

"It's the first time I've ever actually been motivated to do my homework."

"I imagine that having a homicidal maniac trying to kill you would be a sufficient distraction." Kingsley smirked. "No, I am not here to try and recruit you again. Although I will say that I have heard reports from the Academy that both Ron and Neville are exceptional students as well."

"That's good to hear."

"Yes. Gawain Robards was shocked to see them excelling so quickly, especially since neither got a traditional seventh year at Hogwarts. It was then that I let Gawain in on the secret of their success."

"Their hard work and dedication?"

"That and their training during their fifth year under the tutelage of the Boy Who Lived." Kingsley added. "Harry, I personally have witnessed some of the training sessions that Ron and Neville have gone through. As you know, I was one of the highest rated Aurors ever to come out of the Academy. In sessions where I panicked and nearly failed, the two of them kept their cool, worked with their respective teams and completed their assigned tasks with almost no errors. That is not something that you can just know. That kind of cool under pressure and skill has to be taught."

"Both of them have been in some terrifying situations over the years." Harry countered. "I can imagine that training in the Academy seems docile by comparison."

"That may be true, Harry, but we both know that your training had a lot to do with how well they are handling the training they are receiving. You should be very proud of your friends but you should also be proud of yourself. Without your instruction, they would have had no chance of keeping up with the rest of their class."

"Well...thanks." Harry finally said awkwardly.

"You're welcome. Now, for the real reason, I came here. The breakout at Azkaban on Saturday has put the Ministry is a tough place. We need to be seen going after the Death Eaters but at the same time, there are certain...assets that we cannot allow to be damaged."

"You mean me." Harry said simply. "Kingsley, please just tell me what you want. I'm not one of your aides or something like that. Just be real with me."

"Yes, understood. Harry, I must do something to protect you now that Dolohov is out. The public will have a field day if I don't do something. Now, I know that you can handle yourself. But, I also know that he will come after you at some point and when that time comes, the people need to see that we've done something about it."

"So what is your plan?"

"A personal Auror detail. Three Aurors everywhere you go. Plus, we will give you the authorization to join the Aurors in case of an attack. If something happens and you would to hurt someone, you would be immune from any legal repercussions."

It was almost exactly what Harry had figured the answer would be, except that he had expected more Aurors if he was being honest. Still, it wasn't something that Harry was willing to accept without certain conditions being met.

"No." Harry said at first, clearly startling the Minister. "I know that McGonagall asked you for a boost to the castle's defenses and I know that you said that you didn't have anyone available."

"We don't."

"But you have three Aurors that you can spare to protect me?"

"Harry, the Auror force at Hogwarts is over fifty people. Minerva asked me to double that force. We're talking about three Aurors. They are simply not the same."

"I won't be seen taking personal protection when the administration of this school worries that it might not be safe if it were to be attacked."

"You will." Kingsley countered. "Harry, this is not a conversation. We are not going back and forth on this. I am informing you that your detail will arrive in about an hour. They will follow you morning and night while you are at Hogwarts and they will remain on location wherever you go outside of the castle."

"And what about the rest of the students?" Harry snapped. "I am not impressed by power or posturing, Kingsley. You know what I could do to you and your _power_ if I wanted."

"You wouldn't do that." Kingsley countered. "That threat may have worked against Fudge or Scrimgeour but you and I both know that I'm not either of them."

"I suppose you haven't asked me to parade around the Ministry yet." Harry reasoned. "But I have spent the last few months expressing my support in the Ministry because I believed you were doing everything in your power to protect _everyone._ This seems like a move that Scrimgeour would have made to cover his ass. He was more concerned with remaining Minister than protecting people. Is that how you want to be remembered?"

"I don't care how I'm remembered, Harry." Kingsley admitted. "I don't expect to be Minister of Magic for very long. I'm not exactly the political type. I only took the job because I was the only one that everyone could agree on in the moment after the Battle ended."

"Exactly."

"What do you mean?"

"In the moments after the Battle was over, the Wizengamot got together and started throwing names against the wall. From what I've heard, they considered over two dozen people and you were the only one that a majority could agree on." Harry replied. "People trust you. They believe in you. You are the only person that could affect the kind of change that we're looking to make at the Ministry and not get tossed out because of it."

"And how does that apply to this situation?"

"Do you believe that I can defend myself if the situation arises?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe that every student in the school could do the same?"

"No."

"Then who needs the protection?"

Kingsley suddenly realized the point that Harry was making. "The students."

"So why are you really trying to assign a detail to me?"

"Because I'm worried about what people will think if the worst would happen. Because if you're murdered, the blame will ultimately lie with me."

"Do you think I'll blame you?"

"No. You'll blame Dolohov or whoever does it."

"Exactly." Harry replied. "I'm not going to tell you how to do your job, Kingsley. I don't know how to do it and I'm certain that I'm making things simpler than they are. But you were given this position because people trust you. I would think that it's your job to do what's right and what's the best course of action and if people question you, then you lay out the reasons why you did exactly what you did."

"Some people won't understand that. All they care about is what a thing looks like."

"Are those people worth catering to? I don't think they are. In fact, I think they're the kind of people that we need to get out of the Ministry in the first place."

Kingsley sat in silence for a few moments, looking at Harry. Then, he smiled.

"You know, I don't think I will ever stop trying to hire you away from Minerva." Kingsley finally said. "You are right on two things. First, my job is a bit more complicated than you make it sound. However, you are right that I was worried too much about what things look like rather than what they are. Here will be my compromise: you will still get a detail but instead of three Aurors, it will just be one that will walk with you in between classes. The castle will also be getting a fifty percent increase in its protection."

"That sounds like something I can agree to."

"Most people don't get to negotiate with the Minister of Magic, Harry." Kingsley said with amusement.

"Yes, well, I think we're both aware that I'm not most people."

"As long as you keep using that ability to look out for others, I will gladly continue to negotiate with you."

"Understood."


	19. Nineteen

The rest of the month of September flew by in a flash with barely any time for Harry to breathe. It seemed that the moment each of Harry's classes had been done with the most basic of introductory material, Harry had been given more work than he had ever experienced in his entire life.

And that was just for one class.

In fact, Harry wasn't certain that he would have been ready for the coursework if he had returned to the school the previous year. Despite the trying circumstances, Harry had certainly learned a lot, most of it from Hermione herself, while out on his "camping trip."

Each week of school had looked roughly the same thus far. Harry went to classes all day before returning to the Head Student common room where he studied well into the night. He did that five times a week before adding in the random patrols and duties that had been added to his plate since the Azkaban breakout. Finally, Hermione and Harry would go to the Gryffindor Common Room on Friday evenings and spend time with the other students there.

On the weekends, Harry would do his best to sneak home to Grimmauld Place for a couple of hours to spend some time with Cho. But between Harry's incredible amount of homework and Cho's hectic work schedule, the two were rarely able to get more than a meal in before one had to return to work or school.

In fact, one of the only conversations they had managed to have in its entirety was about The Yule Ball. Minerva had confirmed that it would take place on the final Friday before the students returned home for the holidays. The moment that Harry had gotten confirmation of the date, he had sent a letter to Cho, asking if she would go with him.

The next day, when Harry had seen Cho at Grimmauld Place, he had gotten his answer.

"I can't go." Cho said sadly.

"Why not?"

"I have to work." Cho replied. "There's a big bash being hosted by John Dawlish's family. It's a perfect opportunity to network for Meredith and that means that I need to be there."

"Will you have fun at least?"

"I would rather be with you. I don't love putting on the performance that these parties require. But I love my job and I love working with Meredith and so it means that I have to put on a show sometimes."

"Well, I'm certain that this Yule Ball can't go any worse than the first that I attended."

"I've heard that Parvati returned to school." Cho commented. "Maybe you could invite her and show her a better time than the first one?"

"You wouldn't have a problem with that?"

"From what you told me, McGonagall is propping you up as a Champion of sorts again. Even if this is your idea, there's going to be a kind of decorum that you have to follow."

"Which means I'll have to have a date." Harry added.

"Exactly. I wish it could be me but since it can't, you might as well get the opportunity to redeem yourself for your last showing at a ball." Cho replied. "Just stay out of her bed and we won't have any problems."

"Why would I end up in her bed when I could just Apparate home at the end of the night and have you in mine?" Harry teased.

"Is that a promise?"

"You know it."

That conversation was all that Harry could think about on the first Monday of October when Minerva finally stood in front of the students and informed them of the Tournament of Champions and then the Yule Ball that would follow the next night. As Harry looked around the Great Hall, he was pleased to see that the students looked excited about the prospect of the Tournament.

However, it was during the explanation of how the Tournament would work that the student body really got worked up.

"Each and every student will be eligible. Any interested parties must submit their name to their Head of House by the 20th of this month. Starting on November 1st, the Tournament will take place on Friday evenings with each House fighting among themselves to be named the Dueling Champion of their house. Once the Four Champions have been crowned, they will duel each other for the right to be called the Champion of Hogwarts. The Champion of Hogwarts will also be given the opportunity to duel The Man Who Triumphed, Harry Potter himself."

Immediately, every eye in the room looked his way as the students no longer bothered to hide the fact that they were talking over the Headmistress. The excitement in the room was now palpable with a few shouts from the Slytherin table, suggesting that Harry was "going down." However, once those shouts were heard, the conversation was mostly kept to each table.

"The following evening, the school will host a Yule Ball to honor our Champions and celebrate the first half of the year. Again, all students are eligible to attend and encouraged to bring a date. I hope that we can use this opportunity to….let our hair down and relax after what will surely be a challenging first term."

As breakfast was finishing up, Harry noticed Parvati starting to leave the Great Hall, headed towards Divination. Knowing that it might be another week before he saw her again due to their conflicting schedules, Harry grabbed his things and raced after her, shouting her name as he went.

"Parvati!"

Parvati stopped in the Entrance Hall, looking back in surprise to see Harry shouting for her.

"Yes?"

"Hey, I was thinking...would you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

If Parvati had looked surprised before, that was nothing compared to the look on her face at the moment.

"Aren't you dating Cho Chang?"

"Yes, but she has to work the night of the Ball." Harry said as the two of them started walking off towards the Divination classroom. Harry knew that he would likely be late to his first class if he followed her too far but Harry wanted the opportunity to redeem himself, just like Cho had suggested.

"How did you know about the Ball so fast?"

"I helped McGonagall come up with the idea." Harry replied. "Well, for the Tournament at least."

"And you decided to make yourself some sort of Grand Champion."

"So that the school would come together and root against me to win."

"You want the school to root against you?" Parvati asked in confusion.

"I want the school to do something together. If this is what it takes, then I'm all for it."

Parvati stopped in the middle of the hallway, forcing a group of nearly twenty students that had been following them to split around them.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I want to show you a good time." Harry answered. "I know that I was….less than an ideal date the last time."

"That's putting it lightly." Parvati chuckled.

"I know, I know. So, if you want, I'd like to go to the Ball with you and show you that I'm not the oblivious prick that I was the last time."

"Well, just the fact that you know you were being an oblivious prick is a step in the right direction." Parvati replied. When Harry opened his mouth to speak again, she continued. "Harry, I would be glad to go with you. Just be sure you're a better date than you were the last time."

"Promise."

"Good." Parvati said with a genuine smile. "Now, I've got to get to class and I know that mine is nowhere near yours. I imagine if you run, you'll make it on time."

"That's my hope." Harry grinned before taking off down the hallway at a dead sprint.

Unfortunately, he was still late for class. Harry muttered an apology to Krum before taking his seat and sitting silently through a long and very complicated lecture on the foundational elements of structural Transfiguration and how you could use that knowledge to make subtle adjustments to your spells.

Come hell or high water, Harry would pass this class even if it was the death of him to do it.

Once he was finished with Transfiguration, he made his way to the Defense room where he watched as Fleur struggled to teach a particularly self-conscious second year student how to cast the Disarming Spell. When the student, a young and rather stubborn girl named Sophia, finally got the spell correct, she got so excited that she threw her wand.

Which would have been fine had it not sailed right out an open window. Thankfully, when Harry Summoned the wand back into the room, there appeared to be no sign of any damage, likely due to the fact that wands weigh almost nothing.

Harry spent most of his afternoon studying. If he had to guess, Harry would wager half of his gold in Gringotts that he had already spent more time studying in the first month of this year than he had ever done in an entire year before. Part of that was due to Harry's determination to pass every class he took but part of it was also due to the sheer volume of work he had been given.

Harry went to the Great Hall with Hermione for dinner and then, missing one part of their traditional trio, they indulged in an activity they hadn't done all year: a visit with Rubeus Hagrid. The gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Professor had been begging Harry and Hermione to come down to visit him for weeks now but each time he asked, either Harry or Hermione had been busy.

Finally, the first Monday of October, Harry and Hermione were able to wander down to his hut, which had been mostly restored in the aftermath of the battle. As Harry sat at the usual kitchen table, Harry could have sworn that he smelled the smoke of fire, even with the fireplace lacking a fire. Also, there were some visible marks of Dark magic over the walls, spider-like cracks that had been fixed but left scars much like the one on Harry's forehead.

For nearly the entire first hour they were there, Hagrid regaled the pair of them with the highlights of his classes this year, which already included a rehash of the niffler assignment that Harry had done during his fourth year. Then, he talked about how he had a fifth year named Rolf that always seemed to have a Bowtruckle around. According to Hagrid, Rolf's grandfather was a famous wizard roughly seventy years earlier but in Hagrid's words:

"Fer the life o' me, I can' remember his name."

"That's fine, Hagrid." Hermione said as she looked out the window over his shoulder. "Sun's getting real low. We should probably get back to the castle."

"Sad thing, seein' the castle like that."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

"You didn' see?" Hagrid questioned curiously. "Nothin's the same. The castle took a lotta damage in the battle. Too much, see? We fixed as much as we could but…"

"But what, Hagrid?" Hermione asked.

"I'm just not sure it's gonna be the same." Hagrid answered. "It's like the Forest."

"What's wrong with the Forest?" Harry questioned.

"The Battle messed 'er up, it did. I haven' seen a centaur or unicorn or 'bout half o' the creature that used ter live there. Even the spiders are gone, 'though I know Ron won' be too broken up 'bout that." Hagrid mused softly, looking off towards the wall closest to the Forest. "It's like the Forest is dead, like V-v-voldemort broke it."

"But he's gone." Harry said reassuringly. "Even if things are a little messed up right now, I know that the Forest will sort itself out...eventually. Just takes time, right?"

"'Suppose that's true." Hagrid replied. "Things keep changin' 'round here. Firs', it was Dumbledore and then...I know that yeh were out workin' on beatin' that bastard but yeh can't imagine what it was like here."

"We've heard the stories." Hermione assured him.

"Stories is one thing but livin' it...it killed me, seein' the school like that. It would have killed Albus where he stood to see Snape do what he did." Hagrid said. When Harry opened his mouth to tell Harry about Snape, Hagrid cut him off. "I know that he was workin' for Dumbledore. Knew it fer years. I've never met a man who could read other folk like Albus. Even 'fore we know about him lovin' Lily and all that, I knew."

"But that doesn't excuse the things he done to this place. This place is supposed t'be safe for kids, a place away from the wars of their parents. He brought the damn thing to its doorstep."

"The war would have come to Hogwarts anyway." Harry replied.

"Yer probably right." Hagrid agreed. "But if not fer Snape, more people mighta lived. People like Remus and Tonks."

Harry couldn't argue that the fact that the school had been taken over by the Death Eaters had certainly put them back a bit. But the fact remained that Voldemort had still pushed them back to the brink of oblivion after having lost the castle to The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army. If not for the fact that Harry had been able to defeat Voldemort, destroying the morale of a large number of Death Eaters, Voldemort's forces certainly would have followed through on Riddle's promise and destroyed each and every one of them.

But arguing with Hagrid on that particular point wasn't going to solve anything. So rather than pushing back, Harry simply nodded silently.

Harry and Hermione talked with Hagrid before both agreed that they needed to get back to the castle. While both were exempt from the curfew imposed on other students, it wasn't a particularly good look if they were caught out of the castle after dark.

That thought last about twenty meters from the front door of Hagrid's hut before Harry stopped in place, his eyes turning to the Forbidden Forest.

"Harry, what is it?"

"Just something…."

"Something what?"

"Follow me." Harry said, darting into the Forest, leaving Hermione to sprint to catch up. Harry lead the pair of them deep into the Forest, fighting through the underbrush of the Forest as they went. In just the few months since the last time that Harry had been inside the Forest, he saw that Hagrid had been right: The Forest was different.

In the past, wildlife had been easy to see with the movement of the bushes and trees a clear indication of just how much lived in the forest. Due to this, there had also been paths cut through the Forest by both Hagrid and the animals that lived there. Almost everywhere you stepped, there had been evidence of life.

Now, only death remained. The Forest had already started to grow over the old paths, forcing Harry and Hermione to climb over or cut through large tree roots that he knew had never been there before. A layer of bushes and shrubs covered the bottom level of the Forest now, covering the floor with roots and limbs that made it hard to find even footing.

But the closer Harry got to his destination, the less all of this seemed to be true. Nothing lived here but the Forest hadn't even bothered to try reclaiming it. It was as if the lingering effects of Voldemort's curse had cursed the place, keeping even the Forest itself at bay. Even though it was dark, the moon, full in the sky, shined through the hole in the trees, lighting the area.

The first time that Harry had been here, he had been just twelve years old and it had been infested with spiders, massive man-eating spiders at that.

Five years later, at seventeen years old, Harry had come here just one other time to sacrifice himself to Lord Voldemort for what he thought would be the final time.

"Harry…." Hermione whispered next to him. It was clear that she wanted to ask him but was too afraid.

"Yes, it happened here."

"Why does it look so strange?"

"Remember what the house in Godric's Hollow looked like? I imagine it's similar. The darkest magic you can imagine basically exploded here."

"It looks like it killed the forest instead."

"Along with the part of his soul inside of me." Harry added. "I'm just shocked that it didn't seem to hurt anyone else that was here."

Hermione wandered around the edge of the ravine where the spiders home used to be as if she were afraid that the grove itself was cursed. Suddenly, Harry saw her stop and look at the ground.

"What is this?"

Leaning down, she picked up what, at first, appeared to be a small shiny rock. But the moment that Harry saw it, he knew that it was no ordinary rock.

"You know what it is."

Turning the rock over in her hand, Hermione examined it with her typical level of intense scrutiny. Finally, she saw the sign of the Deathly Hallows.

"The Resurrection Stone?"

" _I open at the close..._ Dumbledore's message was about the Horcrux inside me." Harry replied. "I realized exactly what it meant as I entered the Forest."

"So you used the Resurrection Stone?"

Harry nodded. "Ironically, I'm pretty sure I would have been killed by the Dementors if I hadn't. They gave off some sort of Patronus-like effect that allowed me to get to this place."

"Who….who did you see?"

"My parents, Sirius and Remus."

"What did they look like?"

"Like themselves." Harry said simply. "Just different. Not really living but not really dead either."

"So much happened that night."

"More happened that night than on any other night of my life other than the day my parents were killed."

Hermione reached out and offered the Stone to Harry. Harry took it in his hands and considered using it once more for just a moment. He knew that he would never again see his parents. The Mirror of Erised was gone and so were most of his nightmares surrounding Voldemort, which had clearly been a part of the Horcrux's influence on him.

But still, Harry knew that they were at peace and he had no business bringing them back. He would see them again in his dreams. So, Harry threw the Stone into the dirt at his feet and then stepped on it, burrowing the Stone several inches into the ground.

If anyone ever found it again, it would be by sheer chance.

"I thought that you would prefer to have the Stone?" Hermione said, taunting him ever so slightly.

"Not anymore." Harry whispered as he stared at the spot on the ground where the Stone was buried. "We should get back to the school. We're going to miss curfew as it is."

Harry was right. They did miss curfew, albeit by only a few minutes. Thankfully, no one noticed them as they walked from the Forest all the way back to their Common Area in the Headmaster's Tower. Almost the moment they returned, each of them had gone to their respective rooms and grabbed supplies for an evening of studying. For the next four hours, until well after the clock had struck midnight, they each worked in silence.

For each of them, Charms was their easiest subject. Unfortunately, this meant that neither of them was of a particular help to the other. Even though Hermione had spent years taking Defense and Transfiguration, they had already gone so far beyond anything that Hermione had studied in her six years that even she would have no idea what Harry was studying.

Obviously, in the reverse situation, Harry was completely useless in every subject that Hermione was studying.

As the night wore on and Harry realized that he was fighting sleep and losing, Harry packed up his materials and put them back in his bag. However, Harry knew that he had only covered about half of the material that he would need to have done before Monday's classes, meaning that he would likely need to work through the weekend once he finished with his classes on Friday.

This meant that for the third time in as many weeks, Harry would be forced to send Cho a letter, telling her that he couldn't make it back to Grimmauld Place for the weekend. So far, she had seemed accepting of Harry's newfound dedication to his studies but he knew the fact that it had been nearly a month since they had seen each other was weighing on the both of them.

For Harry, however, that weight came at the thought of whether or not he was even in a position to be in a relationship with anyone at the moment, especially someone who was equally as busy as he was. Even the brief amount of time that he had seen Cho over the last few weeks had been quick trips to Hogsmeade for lunch so that he could return to the castle and continue his work.

All things being considered, Harry should have denied the Headmistress' request that Harry take on the duties of Head Boy. He thought that given his relatively light class load and the fact that Hermione would be the Head Girl, he would be completely capable of handling all of his responsibilities.

At the moment, that was true but it was true at the expense of having any sort of social life. Harry hadn't seen Ginny outside of meals and classes in over two weeks and despite the fact that he literally shared a living space with Hermione, he couldn't remember the last time the two of them had simply spent some time together.

Nevermind even bothering to make a trip up to the Gryffindor Common Room to see Parvati, Dennis or any of his older Gryffindor friends. The worst casualty had been Luna who, like Hermione, was taking only one common class with Harry. Harry had literally not seen her one time socially since the beginning of the school year.

Harry had been so worried about his lack of a personal life that he had even brought the matter up with Professor McGonagall. Her response had been encouraging.

"You are trying to do in one year what would take most students three." she had said. "Professors at Hogwarts have very limited responsibilities on the weekends. Most return to homes away from Scotland during those times with only the bare amount of work to do. This is going to be a very difficult year for you, Harry. But, in the end, you'll be further along your career path than any student in your original year and certainly further ahead of anyone in Miss Weasley's year by several strides. Know that you have my support if you need assistance. I believe in you, Mr. Potter, and if you are giving it your best, I know that you will not fail."

At that moment, Harry had been forced to consider whether one year of his life was worth what he was going through. After some thought, Harry came to a simple answer: yes, it was. Harry knew that once he was through this year, things would return to something resembling normal and he would be able to pursue relationships more fully again.

Until then, he would have to make the best of it what he could.

The following morning, Harry awoke and quickly wrote the letter to Cho before performing what had become a weekly trudge to the Owlery to send the letter off. While Harry had yet to replace Hedwig (something he couldn't seem to bring himself to do), he had been able to use Pig in the meantime.

Once the letter was sent, Harry walked all the way back down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Almost immediately, Harry knew that something was up. Every single Gryffindor was huddled around Ginny who spoke in incredibly hushed tones. Harry approached, catching the tail end of her story.

"...to the Headmistress, he's going to go to St. Mungo's until after Christmas. Apparently, they caught him before he was able to do too much damage but she's worried that he'll try something again."

"Who'll try what again?" Harry asked, causing everyone to turn his way.

"Ummmm. Well, you see, Dennis Creevey….he, um, the Headmistress thinks that he tried to kill himself last night."

"What!?"

"He was found at the edge of the lake this morning. He was unconscious with a cauldron tied to his feet. When he woke up, McGonagall said he was clearly drunk on something. She thinks that he had intended to levitate the cauldron out over the lake and then drop it in with himself attached to it."

"Merlin…."

"He's in the Hospital Wing now." Ginny replied, her eyes locked on Harry's. She had known exactly what Harry was going to do before even he had known.

"Please keep this to ourselves." Harry requested of the Gryffindors surrounding Ginny. "Dennis clearly needs some privacy and we should respect that."

"Yes, sir." replied almost every Gryffindor standing there.

Harry turned in place and immediately made his way up the stairs and to the Hospital Wing. The moment he walked into the room, Madam Pomfrey immediately rolled her eyes.

"Merlin's foot, boy, what did you do now?"

"I would like to talk to Dennis." Harry said simply.

Immediately, her demeanor switched as her eyes shifted to the bed on her left where Dennis sat. He looked awful. His face was red and swollen from the tears that were still actively falling down his face and his hair was a mess, tossed back and forth like someone had roughly ripped their hands through it.

"You're the first to come." Madam Pomfrey said softly. "I hope you won't be the last."

"Headmistress McGonagall just told Ginny Weasley who was quietly relaying the message to the rest of the Gryffindors. I know I won't be the only one."

"Good." Madam Pomfrey replied. "I'll give you two some space."

Madam Pomfrey walked to the other end of the Wing, tending to a student who had ears the size of an elephant's.

Harry could only hope that was reversible.

"Dennis."

Dennis' tears stopped but he never looked up at Harry, who sat on his left side. His head fell to the right and his eyes dropped to the floor. Dennis barely moved at all. He just sat there as if he were dead already.

"Dennis, I-I don't know what's going through your mind right now." Harry admitted. "I only hope you know that there are people here that love you."

Dennis still did not respond, although Harry thought he saw the slightest of reactions on the word "love."

"You know, you aren't the first person to deal with this kind of thing. There are dozens of people in the castle who lost someone, whether it was a friend or family. Some lost both. Do you know the name Andromeda Tonks?"

"No." Dennis muttered. He still hadn't moved but he was willing to respond, which was a step in the right direction.

"Andromeda Tonks was the mother of Nymphadora Tonks. Nymphadora was assigned to the school over my fifth and sixth years as an Auror to defend the school. Tonks was...well, she was a little crazy if we're being honest. You see, she was a Metamorphmagus and she took full advantage of those abilities. She was constantly changing what she looked like, sometimes mimicking the appearance of animals, famous people or other people in the room."

"But despite her bizarre behavior, and her clumsy nature, she was an excellent Auror, taught by some of the best. She ended up marrying Remus Lupin. He was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts the year before you started."

"He was a werewolf."

"Yes, he was." Harry smirked. "How did you know that?"

"Colin told me. Said he was the best. I thought he was crazy."

"Colin was right." Harry confirmed. "Remus was the best Defense professor I ever had, Bill and Fleur aside. Remus was convinced that his _nature_ was going to affect his relationship with Tonks. Apparently, he repeatedly tried to end it but she wouldn't let him. In April of this year, Tonks gave birth to a little baby boy, Edward. They named him after his grandfather, Ted Tonks."

"What does all this matter?"

"Because Ted Tonks was killed by a group of Snatchers in March. He was a Muggleborn, you see. That's a hell of a thing, losing your spouse like that. But that wasn't the end. Both Tonks and Remus were murdered by Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts. Killed when their son was only a month old. In less than two months, Andromeda had seen the birth of her grandson, the death of her husband and then the death of her daughter and son-in-law."

"That should have destroyed her. No one would have blamed her if she would have just lost it, given up on life itself. But, she didn't and I imagine it's for one reason only: her grandson. She was now the one who would take care of him. She would be his mother, where her daughter couldn't be. She would be his father, where Remus couldn't be."

"That doesn't mean that she doesn't have her dark days. There are days where I am certain that she finds herself in a pit of despair over all she's lost. But then, little Teddy manages to bring her back out of it again."

"That's great." Dennis finally said. "I don't have someone like that."

"Yes, you do."

"Really? Who?"

"The parents who already lost one son to a world they don't understand." Harry countered. "They need you, Dennis. Put yourself in their shoes: their oldest son is whisked off to a magical school, full of people with abilities beyond their wildest dreams. Three years later, their second child does the same. Both of their children are taken to a world so far different from theirs that it's barely recognizable as the same world. You and Colin would return home and talk about school and whether you knew it or not, you would sound like you were speaking a different language to them."

"Then, one day, they get a letter from the Minister of Magic informing them that there was a large battle at the school, a battle that their son shouldn't have even been present for, and that he was killed. The fact that they even allowed you to return to school is amazing. If you were my child, I would have locked you in your room to ensure that whatever happened, you would never return to the place where their other son was killed."

"Yet, here you sit. That means that you must have said something to them, something wonderfully convincing to allow you to return."

"I told them it's what Colin would have wanted." Dennis said, tears welling up in his eyes again.

"Damn straight." Harry replied firmly. "Colin would have wanted you to finish what he started. Colin would have wanted you to come back to Hogwarts and graduate and join the wizarding world proper. But, he wouldn't have wanted you to do that at the expense of yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"There's being strong and then there's being stubborn." said Harry. "We all have to be strong now, Dennis, to survive in this world. But we don't have to do it alone. Each day, I have to figure out a way to keep myself from hiding, to keep myself from wallowing in my sorrow and self-pity. Thankfully, I get to share most of my day with my best friend. She knows me and so she keeps me honest and she makes me talk when it all becomes too much for me."

"But, Colin was that person for me."

"Then, you'll have to reach out and find others to help. There are others, Dennis. All you have to do is ask." Harry replied. "We're a family here. We should have done a better job of noticing that you were...struggling and we will. I know we will."

"Thanks, Harry."

"You're going to have a wonderfully long life." Harry said as he stood from his chair. "Remember that Colin is watching you every moment of every day. Make him proud."

"Do you really believe that?"

Images of his parents, both in the Graveyard and the Forest, flashed in his mind's eye.

"I know it." Harry said before patting the younger man on the shoulder. "Get some rest."

Harry walked out the Hospital Wing and true to Harry's comment that Gryffindors were a family, he saw Ginny surrounded by a group of at least a dozen students from Gryffindor House.

"He's awake but he's tired." Harry said. "You'll have to check with Madam Pomfrey but I imagine that if you go in one at a time, you should be fine."

Almost immediately, five or six students rushed passed Harry and into the Hospital Wing. Harry could only imagine the tongue-lashing they were about to receive from Madam Pomfrey.

He also could imagine that they didn't care.

"How was he?" Ginny asked quietly.

"He's hurting. Colin was his whole connection to this world and now it's gone."

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"Do you think you're okay right now?" Harry asked Ginny.

"I'm getting there. Almost every day, something reminds me of Fred. It used to be that when that happened, I would break down. Now, it just feels like the air has been sucked out of my lungs momentarily. I can recover but it still hurts like hell."

"Do you think you'll be okay someday?"

"I do." Ginny replied, looping her arm around Harry and setting her head on his shoulder. "I've got friends like you."

"I think Dennis didn't realize just how tight knit Hogwarts is." Harry answered. "He felt alone coming here but the truth is that unless you choose to be, you are never alone at Hogwarts."

"For better or worse, right?" Ginny said with a smirk.

"For better or worse."


	20. Twenty

_Harry stood in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Where exactly, he couldn't tell but he could recognize the dark, twisted trees of the Forbidden Forest anywhere._

 _Suddenly, a breeze blew through the woods, carrying with it what sounded like a voice, whispering in Harry's ear, telling him to walk deeper into the woods. Despite having no specific reason, he didn't trust the voice. While he was unable to place just who it sounded like, Harry did not believe that walking was a good idea._

 _Yet, his feet began to drag him forward anyway. Harry found that he had lost all control over his extremities. Had he been cursed or charmed in some way? Was he fighting the Imperius Curse? He had always been quite skilled at pushing back against mind control but it had been quite some time since someone had attempted to Imperuse him._

 _Still, no matter how hard Harry pushed back, his feet moved on, pulling him deeper and deeper into the woods. Fear gripped at his heart as he began to hear voices, quiet at first and then ringing out loudly through the woods. Still, Harry could not recognize the voices but he knew that they were not friendly._

 _Finally, Harry reached his destination: the grove in the Forest where Hagrid's acromantula friend, Aragog, had lived and where Voldemort had struck Harry with the Avada Kedavra for the second time in his life during the Battle of Hogwarts. While the grove was empty, voices rang loud in Harry's head, a great cacophony that echoed in his ears, nearly causing him to collapse in pain._

 _The voices swelled until it sounded like each one was yelling inside Harry's own head. He felt as if his head might explode if he was forced to endure even one more second of noise._

 _Then, for the second time, the wind blew through the trees, carrying that same voice with it._

 _This time, however, Harry clearly recognized the owner._

" _Silence."_

 _Instantly, every voice stopped and Harry was left standing alone in the center of the grove, as only the wind in the trees spoke to him._

" _Harry Potter...The Boy Who Lived, come to die. Did you really think that you could be rid of me so easily?"_

" _ **You aren't real."**_

" _Aren't I? Part of me lives in you, Harry. That's something that will_ _never_ _leave you."_

" _ **You destroyed that part of your soul. It's gone."**_

 _A high-pitched, cold laughter echoed through the trees, carried by the wind so that it seemed to bounce off every surface in the forest and return to Harry one hundred times over._

" _You lived with a fragment of my essence buried deep within you for sixteen years. You think that just goes away?"_

" _ **It's gone."**_

" _We shall see. Now, use it."_

" _ **Use what?"**_

" _In your hand, Potter."_

 _Looking down, Harry saw that the Resurrection Stone had suddenly appeared in his hand. How it had gotten there, Harry couldn't be sure but there was no doubting the obsidian stone for what it was._

" _Use it."_

" _ **No."**_

" _Use it."_

" _ **No."**_ _Harry replied, although he could feel his strength to resist waning._

" _Now."_

 _Despite every instinct telling him not to follow the instructions of the voice, Harry turned the Stone over once, twice, three times. The moment the stone turned over the third time, a great light flashed before Harry's eyes, causing him to fall to the ground. But almost the second the light flashed, it was followed by an overwhelming darkness, which seemed to threaten to swallow all light in its shadow._

 _He stood in the center of the shadow, looking exactly as he had the day he had died._

" _Good morning, Harry." he said as he raised the wand in his hand, a wand that Harry had personally destroyed. The last thing that Harry remembered seeing was a flash of green light as the voice echoed in his ears._

" _Good morning, Harry."_

" _Good morning, Harry."_

" _Good morning, Harry."_

Harry launched himself up, falling backwards onto the floor. As Harry looked up from the floor, a face entered his field of vision. Before Harry could even realize that it was Hermione looking down at him, Harry's wand flashed from his pocket and aimed directly at Hermione's face.

If not for a moment's hesitation that allowed Hermione to grab his wand, Harry could have cursed her into oblivion.

"Harry!"

It took him another moment to realize where exactly he was. He was no longer in the Forbidden Forest. He wasn't there. He was in the Common Area of the dorm he shared with Hermione back in Hogwarts. The Battle was over and he was dead.

"Hermione...what...what happened?" Harry asked in confusion.

"You fell asleep at your desk studying last night. When I came down, you were muttering something about _using it._ I tried to wake you up and you kind of flipped out."

"I see." Harry said as he finally sat up. "Sorry about that."

"What were you dreaming about?"

Harry quickly filled her in on the details of his dream, slightly ashamed that he was still having these kind of nightmares. Hermione had been quick to put an end to that.

"You suffered so much over the years. Trauma does terrible things to us and you've experienced every kind of trauma that can be imagined. It's just amazing that you didn't turn out to hate everyone."

"I know. I just thought I would be done with these kind of dreams now that the part of him in me has been destroyed."

"How often are these dreams happening?"

"Not often. Once or twice a month since the Battle. Mostly seems to be when I'm tired."

"Then you need to take better care of yourself."

"It's a little tough when I've got enough homework to last me until Christmas."

"We'll make the time." Hermione insisted. "You can't work yourself this hard."

"What are you, my girlfriend?" Harry taunted gently.

"No. If I was, I would have hit you with a book already."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Don't make me hit you again."

Harry and Hermione each took the rest of the morning to get ready before heading down to breakfast together, a rarity considering their contrasting school schedules. In fact, considering the fact that he lived with Hermione, it was rare for them to see each other at any time other than lunch, dinner and their daily study time, where they each worked in silence.

The only time the pair of them seemed to truly actually converse was the rare breakfast that Harry managed to attend with Hermione, who typically woke up much earlier than him, and when they worked on their Charms homework.

Not necessarily the most social of activities.

Still, it was more often than he had seen Cho over the last month. In that time, he had managed to make it home only one time and then she had been forced to leave Grimmauld Place only two hours after she had arrived due to a work crisis.

She seemed to have accepted Harry's letter the previous week in stride. But even in the accepting nature of her reply, Harry thought that he could read some frustration with him. They had known that this year was going to be difficult on their relationship. Honestly, Harry didn't think either of them had even the slightest idea just how difficult. It had been more than once that Harry had considered the idea of breaking up with Cho simply because neither of them had the time to spend with each other. Even if Harry's schedule cleared up after the year, Cho was working her way higher and higher at the Ministry with each passing day. In fact, it had apparently already been considered that Cho would be moved to another Department, specifically the Department of International Magical Cooperation, so that she could be named the Deputy Head of the Department within the next two years.

Cho was driven. It was one of the things that Harry liked most about her. But eventually, Harry knew that he would be ready to settle down and let his life relax a bit. If he spent the rest of his life with Cho, he would constantly remain in the spotlight, both as Harry Potter and as the partner of an incredibly high ranking Ministry official.

Still, he enjoyed the time that he spent with Cho. She had no knowledge of his old life and didn't seem to be particularly interested in bringing up the past. That probably had a lot to do with their mutual past and the failings in it. Harry couldn't help but wonder how Cho would have dealt with Harry's nightmare earlier that morning. She wouldn't have had any context for what Harry was feeling or why because she had never attempted to learn about that part of him.

Of course, Harry hadn't spent much time learning about Cho's time after she had graduated so he supposed that neither of them were ready to go down either of those particular rabbit-holes.

Time wandered on until the following Friday with Harry doing his best to keep up with his studies while also working with Bill and Fleur _and_ keeping up with his Head Boy duties. All three of those things came to a head just after lunch on Friday. Harry was racing to the library to continue his research on his Defense Against the Dark Arts project before he had to patrol the corridors that evening. Once he was done with that, his plan was to meet Cho for dinner briefly that evening before returning to the castle to finish an essay that was due Monday morning for Transfiguration.

Unfortunately, as Harry walked through the halls of the castle, two students decided that none of Harry's plans for the weekend mattered. As Harry reached the stairs that would take him down the three levels, Harry noticed a crowd gathered near the stairs below, some of them shouting for helping. Dropping his bag on the stairs, Harry sprinted down the stairs to the next level down where he saw two students, one a Hufflepuff and the other a Slytherin, engaging in a duel with a crowd surrounding them.

Scanning the crowd, Harry noticed a wide mix of reactions to the duel. Some were enthused, encouraging both to attack more. Some looked afraid. Whether they were afraid the students were going to get caught or afraid one of the students was going to get hurt, Harry couldn't be certain. But a large percentage of the students simply looked angry. While the idea of the Tournament of Champions had worked for a time in calming the student body, the fact was that the Tournament still didn't begin for another two weeks, meaning that there was no distraction from any conflict that may have happened in the castle.

Harry saw that no one was going to step forward and stop this. So, he drew his wand and with it, parted the crowd in front of him, pressing the students against the walls and giving him a path to march through. Both students paused just long enough to observe that someone had stepped forward. They each registered that it was, in fact, Harry Potter who had clearly come to stop them and then turned back towards each other, firing with a renewed fury.

Immediately, Harry stepped in between the two students, throwing shield after shield to keep them from attacking each other. Unfortunately, both of these students were gifted spellcasters, meaning they gave very little opportunity for Harry to break through their chain of attack and stop the fight.

For what felt like an eternity, Harry weathered the storm of attacks from each. Then, the Hufflepuff, tired from the torrent of fire that he had been laying down, relented for just a second, which was all the time that Harry needed. He quickly Disarmed the Hufflepuff, his wand flying high in the air. Looking back, Harry was glad to see that the Slytherin's eyes had risen to follow the wand, a great distraction that allowed Harry to Disarm her as well. With both wands in the air, Harry pointed his own wand straight in the air, Summoning the wands to him.

He caught them both in his left hand and leveled the wand in his right hand at the Slytherin while aiming both wands in his left hand at the Hufflepuff.

"That's enough!" Harry bellowed, his voice causing a sudden silence to occur. The hallway froze for a moment, everyone staring at Harry, wondering what he would do.

"You and you will stay." Harry said, pointing at the two duelists. "Everyone else will go about their business."

Once everyone saw that duel had been neutralized and nothing else would happen, the spectators quickly left, certainly afraid that they would get in trouble if they lingered. After only a few seconds, everyone other than Harry and the two duelists were gone, leaving Harry with two clearly agitated students.

"Names." Harry ordered.

"Ethan Webb." the boy from Hufflepuff said.

"Elizabeth Carlisle." said the Slytherin girl.

"What year?"

"Sixth." both said in unison.

"You'll follow me to the Headmistress' office. If you're lucky, you're going to spend the next few months in detention." Harry said as he Summoned his bag, which he grabbed out of mid-air and threw over his shoulder.

With their wands in Harry's hands, neither dared fight with him. Instead, both turned and marched down the hall with Harry behind him. Neither spoke until they were seated in front of Minerva McGonagall, who looked as furious as Harry had ever seen her.

"Explain yourselves."

Both attempted to speak at the same time. Rather than listen to them each blame the other, she raised a hand to silence them before looking up at Harry.

"What did you see?"

"By the time I got there, the duel had already started. I don't know who started it."

"Fine." Minerva replied before turning her attention back to the students. "Mr. Webb, your version of events, please."

"Well, I-uh, she said some things to my friends-"

"I did not!" Elizabeth cried.

"Enough! You will get your chance to explain yourself." Minerva growled. "Continue, Mr. Webb."

"Yeah, she said that she was going to get back at us for what we did to the Slytherins."

As he said that, Harry noticed that Ethan had been a part of the group that had attacked the Slytherins in the Great Hall just after the start of the school year. If he was right, Harry was starting to notice a trend.

"So, I told her that we were only giving her what she deserved, considering who her father is. You know who her father is, right?"

"I am aware that Miss Carlisle's father sits in Azkaban, awaiting trial for his actions in support of Lord Voldemort." Minerva replied. "Can you please explain what that has to do with Miss Carlisle herself?"

"Well, it's her father. My father was the one that caught him. So she wants revenge because of that."

"I see." Mineva replied, although it was clear that she was trying very hard not to roll her eyes at the young man. "Is any of that true?"

"No." Elizabeth replied, actually rolling her eyes. "Yes, my father is in jail. But I didn't attack him because of his father. I attacked him because he's a self-righteous prick."

"Excuse me?"

"He's been going around to everyone in our year, bragging about how his father put my father away and that I'm a Death Eater too. In his eyes, I should be sharing a cell with him."

"Like father, like daughter."

"Shut up, you idiot!"

"That's quite enough." Minerva said, cutting the two of them off before they could get any further. "Miss Carlisle, do you admit to starting the duel?"

"Yes. I passed him in the hallway and he called me a Death Eater for the fiftieth time this school year so I tried to Stun him."

"Fine. Mr. Webb, do you admit that you have been slandering Miss Carlisle's name since the beginning of the year?"

"It's not slander if it's true." Ethan scoffed defiantly.

"I will take that as a yes." Minerva grumbled before looking up at Harry. "Mr. Potter, what would your recommendation for punishment be?"

"Me?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. You've heard that Mr. Webb has been slandering Miss Carlisle since the beginning of the school year. In turn, Miss Carlisle attempted to curse Mr. Webb in the hallways. Both are clear violations of school rules. So, what do you believe is an adequate punishment for them?"

This was another one of Minerva's tests. While she obviously didn't have to listen to Harry, he could tell that she was genuinely curious what Harry would say. Harry thought about it. As far as he knew, neither were multiple offenders. Ethan had clearly been the agitator for most of the year but Elizabeth had been the one to finally attack the other.

So, the question was simply: Which crime was greater?

"Their punishment should be the same and shared." Harry said with an evil grin. "Detention, once a week until Christmas. The detention should be served together and should require them to work together."

"Excellent!" Minerva said, clearly pleased with Harry's response. "I concur with our Head Boy. You both shall serve detentions on Friday evenings with Mr. Potter until the final Friday of the Fall term."

Neither student argued with the Headmistress, a surprise considering Harry had greatly expected them to hate the idea. Then, Harry realized what exactly she had said.

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"Did you say they would be serving them with me?"

"I did." Minerva replied. "Unfortunately, I already have several other staff with standing detentions on Friday evenings. You'll need to swap your normal curfew patrol with another Prefect, of course. I'm certain that it shouldn't be a problem for you and Ms. Granger to figure out."

"Right."

"If that's all, you will both see Mr. Potter in the Defense classroom after dinner tonight."

"Yes, ma'am." Both students said together before solemnly standing and leaving Harry alone with the Headmistress. She went back to her work before she noticed Harry standing over her, uncertain of how exactly to broach the subject he wanted to bring up.

"Is there something the matter?"

"No, ma'am. It's just that I...um...I had plans for this evening."

"Were they related to your schoolwork?"

"Not exactly."

"Were they related to your duties as Head Boy or your apprenticeship?"

"I...had a date."

"I see." Minerva replied, looking somewhat contrite. "I am sorry, Harry. But I need you here. I think that you'll have good lessons to pass along to these two."

"We couldn't do it any other night of the week?"

Minerva put down her quill and thought for a moment.

"Please have a seat." she said as she motioned to the chairs that Elizabeth and Ethan had just vacated.

"Yes, ma'am." Harry replied dejectedly.

"I want to have a conversation about your responsibilities here."

"Sure."

"I hear from all of our professors that you are working exceptionally hard."

"I want to do well." Harry responded. "I know that you went out on a bit of a limb to name me the next Defense professor. I don't want you to regret that."

"That kind of attitude alone is enough for me to know that I've made the right choice. According to your professors, you are among the top in each of your classes. I must say that I am impressed, Harry. I expected great things from you, now that you could truly focus on your classes. But I have to admit that I didn't think that you would do this well."

"Thank you, Headmistress."

"Harry, there's no one else here."

"Right….Minerva, I forgot." Harry said nervously.

"Now, let's be honest for a moment. You are only in school this year because it is required in order to become the professor. If we didn't have to abide by those bylaws, then you would already have a job at this school."

"That's nice to know." Harry said appreciatively.

"So, your first priority should be to Bill and Fleur and your apprenticeship. Everything else comes second."

"Yes."

"After that should be your duties as Head Boy. You will go from being a student at this school to a leader among its staff."

"But that's just a student position."

"It's a position of leadership." Minerva corrected. "Tell me, who is the Head of Gryffindor House this year?"

"Bill."

"Who do you think will replace him when you take over his job?"

"Well, I-Minerva, do you mean to say that I will be named as Head of Gryffindor House?" Harry asked in surprise.

"If you continue to show the kind of leadership that I know you possess, I expect nothing less from you. Not only that but you will also be named the Deputy Headmaster. Filius has informed me that he plans to retire within the next couple of years. At that point, I would need a new Deputy anyway and none of the Professors who I have asked are interested."

"But I am-I don't have-No one-Are you sure?" Harry stuttered.

"Quite. The staff respects you, the students already look up to you and you have no qualms about accepting leadership. I have already asked a few of the Professors about the idea and they all support me if you continue to progress as you have already this year."

"I don't know what to say."

"Say that you'll continue to take your duties as Head Boy seriously and that you will continue to do good work with Bill and Fleur. Say that you'll spend a little less time on your studies so that you don't burn yourself out. Even if you get three Acceptable grades, you will still be given the job."

"Sure."

"Now, about this evening, I think we can both agree that Elizabeth and Ethan need some repercussions for their actions. I think we can also agree that having them serve that first detention next week lessens its impact a bit."

"I can see that, yes."

"I wasn't kidding when I said that we have several staff who already have standing detentions on Friday evenings. Quite literally half the staff is already dealing with a detention of sorts. The other half is doing evening rounds after curfew on a Friday evening when they could be going home to their families. We all sacrifice around here, Harry. It's one of the hidden costs of working at a place like Hogwarts."

"I know that you haven't seen Ms. Chang in quite some time. I'm sorry for that. But, this kind of thing is going to become a regular event if you choose to stay at Hogwarts. May I offer you a bit of advice, peer to peer?"

"Sure." Harry replied, even if he felt in no way, shape or form a peer of Minerva McGonagall.

"If she cannot understand that, then you may need to reassess your relationship with her. As I said last week, this year will likely be one of the hardest years of the rest of your life."

"I know. It's just that I've cancelled on her a few times now."

"Has she cancelled on you?"

"Yeah, I mean she's busy too."

"Then either she will understand or she won't. But I need you here. You are one of the few people who understand these students and the struggles they are going through. They will listen to you."

"I know." Harry nodded. "I'll tell her that something came up. She won't like it but I think she'll understand."

"Thank you, Harry. In the end, all of the time and effort that you are putting into this will be well worth it. Hogwarts is truly a wonderful place to work."

"If it's anything like being a student here, then I'm sure it will be."

That evening, rather than going out to dinner with Cho like he wanted, Harry arrived at the Defense Classroom where Elizabeth and Ethan were already waiting. Harry sent a letter to Cho earlier in the day, explaining why he wouldn't be able to make it. Even though he knew that he had a good reason, he couldn't help but feel guilty. While it was true that they had both cancelled on each other over the last month, Harry had been responsible for the last two instances, something that he wasn't particularly pleased about.

"Inside." Harry ordered as he opened the door. Both students, neither looking at the other, stepped into the room. Harry followed them into the room, an idea of what exactly their punishment would look like. With a wave of his wand, all of the desks in the room were Banished to a place against the walls, leaving a large space in the middle.

"The two of you are sixth years." Harry said firmly. "That means that you've had instruction from Remus Lupin, an imposter version of Alastor Moody, Dolores Umbridge, Severus Snape, The Carrows and now Bill and Fleur Weasley. Some of those teachers were excellent, others less so. Clearly, you learned well from them. Your dueling technique, while a little ragged, was quite good for a pair of sixth year students."

"Now, this is designed as a punishment but personally, I hate the idea of simply wasting your time as a punishment. If you are going to be here, you are going to better yourself in the process."

"How?" Ethan asked nervously.

"The two of you are going to duel me. At first, I will allow the two of you to duel me together. Eventually, you will move on to fighting me on your own with your peer critiquing your performance and offering you assistance."

"You mean I'm going to have to work with the Death Eater?" Ethan asked.

"Stop calling me that!" Elizabeth cried, her wand suddenly in her hand.

"That's enough!" Harry bellowed, his voice bouncing off the corners of the room and echoing a number of times over. "Yes, the two of you will work together. If you don't, you will lose. I don't care what McGonagall says. You will continue to serve this detention until the two of you work together and defeat me."

"What happens if I win first?" Elizabeth said.

"Then, you'll both be free to have your Friday evenings back."

"Both of us?" Elizabeth moaned. "How is that fair?"

"Because I can guarantee you that the only way for the two of you to defeat me is by working together."

"You seem pretty sure of that." Ethan replied.

"At fourteen years old, I dueled with Lord Voldemort. At fifteen, I lead a group of students in battle against veteran Death Eaters and held my own. By the time I was your age, I had been in more duels than most of the Aurors at the Ministry of Magic."

"Yeah, but you didn't really win any of those battles."

"If you are so confident, then let's begin. If you win, I'll say that you served your time and we won't have to come back here again."

Immediately, Ethan's wand was up and throwing curses at Harry, who easily deflected them. Considering Ethan was still a beginning sixth year, he was still shouting every curse he threw while Harry had finally managed to master silent spell casting. As much as he was loathe to admit it, Snape had been right. Once you could cast spells without saying them aloud, it was so much easier to surprise your opponent.

While Ethan had jumped out first, Elizabeth had quickly caught up with her classmate, both of them throwing curses and hexes at Harry with increasing volume. Still, Harry managed to deflect them, his wand barely moving from its place as he threw each spell away from them.

This lasted for about fifteen seconds before Harry spotted an opening and easily Disarmed both of them, catching their wands without even looking. Both Ethan and Elizabeth were clearly exhausted from just that short burst of wandwork, each of them breathing deeply as they tried to catch their breath.

"Well then, I guess we will continue to serve these detentions." Harry mused as he handed their wands back. "Shall we go again?"

Again they went and again, Harry Disarmed both of them. This time, they lasted about ten seconds. Again and again and again and again, they attacked Harry. Never once did they even come close to hitting Harry. In fact, they never lasted longer than thirty seconds. As the night wore on and they worked harder and harder, each of them had thrown their cloaks to the side and rolled up their sleeves, sweating profusely.

Meanwhile, Harry stood at the front of the room, hardly working at all.

After what Harry guessed was their twentieth attempt at beating him, Harry Summoned two chairs from the edge of the room and asked them to sit.

"Now, why have I been beating you?"

"Because you're really good." Ethan said in between giant breaths of air. "I can see why you beat Voldemort now."

"My dueling ability had nothing to do with why I beat Voldemort." Harry admitted. "Do you want to know why I beat Voldemort?"

"Yes." both of them replied.

"Because I worked with others." Harry replied. "Without Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley or Dumbledore or McGonagall or two dozen others, I never would have stood a chance. With them, I was able to ensure that when I stepped up to fight Voldemort for the last time, there was no chance that he was going to win."

"Both of you were taught by Severus Snape. Do either of you know the name Peter Pettigrew?"

Both shook their heads.

"Peter Pettigrew was a friend of my father's. He was a Gryffindor. Now, we both know that Snape belonged to Slytherin. What else do you know about Snape?"

"He was the Headmaster of the school last year. I hear Voldemort gave him the job." Ethan replied, his eyes shifting to Elizabeth as he spoke. "Must have been nice for you."

"It wasn't nice for anyone, you moron." Elizabeth countered. "This place was a place for the Carrows to torture students and for Snape to watch on and do nothing about it."

"That's not true." Harry countered. "Snape may not have been actively working against the Carrows but he wasn't sitting on his hands either. For years, Snape reported all of Voldemort's intelligence to Dumbledore."

"You're saying Snape spied on Voldemort?" Elizabeth asked.

"That doesn't make any sense. He killed Dumbledore." Ethan added.

"Dumbledore arranged for Snape to kill him so that Voldemort would believe that Snape was on his side." Harry said. It wasn't the exact truth but neither student would know that. "Snape was a Slytherin through and through. But he was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and he was an essential part to Voldemort's downfall. Meanwhile, Peter Pettigrew, a Gryffindor long thought dead, returned to Voldemort's side and helped bring him back during my fourth year. A Gryffindor assisted in bringing him back, not a Slytherin."

"Why do I tell you this?" Harry asked rhetorically. "To tell you that, while Slytherin may have a reputation for producing Dark wizards, that doesn't make every Slytherin a Death Eater. And just because you belong to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, that doesn't mean that you are a good person. Our Hogwarts House is simply a family to help us along while we're away from home. In the end, we are each responsible for our actions, regardless of whether we are a Snake, Eagle, Badger or Lion."

"We will continue our lessons next week." Harry said. "Think about what I said and we'll try again then."

Each of them looked at the other for a moment and then stood silently and walked out the door. Harry watched both of them go, hoping that his message had gotten through to them, when he heard the sound of clapping coming from the back of the room.

Looking up, Harry saw Bill standing at the back of the room, a wide smile on his face.

"How long have you been here?" Harry asked.

"The whole time. Minerva wanted me to look in on you to see what you chose to do." Bill replied as he walked towards Harry. "Interesting choice."

"McGonagall agreed with my assessment that they needed to learn to work together."

"Oh, I agree. Pitting them against you was a brilliant idea, by the way. You could tell they wanted to take you down a peg immediately."

"That was the idea. I was just hoping that I could deal with them as well as I thought I could."

"You handled it all quite well." Bill admitted. "You know, I have to say that when Minerva first suggested this idea to me, I was not exactly on board."

"What idea?"

"You becoming the Defense professor."

"Oh."

"Don't get me wrong. I knew that you had the skill and if half of what I heard about Dumbledore's Army is true, then you have the teaching acumen. But I just wasn't sure if you had the drive to accomplish what you needed in order to get the job done. But you and Ron have both proven me wrong in that regard."

"Well, thanks." Harry said bashfully. "How is Ron doing?"

"From the few people at the Academy that I know, exceptionally well. Both he and Neville are top of the class in almost everything."

"Wow."

"Maybe you both just needed to get away from each other for a bit in order to grow up."

"I think we were plenty grown up already." Harry countered.

"You know what I mean. Ron's too competitive for his own good. Regardless of how good he was at something, he never felt like he could compete with you and it pissed him off."

"Well, I hope he can get over that."

"I think he will, especially that he has a thing that's separate from you now." Bill said. "But seriously, Harry, I think you are going to do wonderful things here."

"Thanks, Bill."

Harry went back to his dorm that night and went right to sleep, both exhausted from the detention and pleased with the praise he had received from Bill. Unfortunately, that warm feeling disappeared about halfway through his breakfast on Saturday morning when a letter dropped onto his lap.

Immediately, he knew who it was from and he wasn't certain whether it would be good or bad. Rather than waiting to read it, Harry ripped the envelope open and read the letter inside.

 _Harry,_

 _I'm glad that things are going well at school for you. Work has also been busy since the breakout. I've been working nearly eighty hours a week since then with hardly a break. It's been hard but when we catch these bastards, it will all have been worth it._

 _However, I think we are each slowly reaching a point of no return. I find myself being less and less upset each time either of us are forced to cancel a date. That's not how these things should work. I know that neither of us are ever going to have normal lives. Heck, I'm a chief counselor to one of the highest ranking Ministry officials and I'm going to have the more normal life of the two of us._

 _I'm not saying that we should break up. But I will admit that I've considered it and I know that you have too. Either way, I'm not going to do that through a letter. If this really is the end, I would rather not repeat the end of our last relationship and actually talk things out like adults._

 _See you soon,_

 _Cho_

Harry read the letter twice before setting it down. Apparently, long distance relationships were not a thing that either he or Cho was good at. Immediately, Ginny, who sat across the table, knocked on the table in front of him, causing his eyes to rise to hers.

"What's wrong?"

Harry handed her the letter, which she quickly read. For a second, she said nothing. Then, she looked up at him, a morose look on her face.

"I'm sorry, Harry."

"It's not over yet." Harry replied, hoping he sounded more optimistic than he felt. Based on the look that Ginny gave him, he did not. "Listen, if this really is the end, then at least I can feel good that we gave it a real chance. We're adults and we can handle this like adults."

"You need to see her soon, Harry." Ginny replied. "Because I think you know that it's over."

"I...don't want it to be over."

"I know. But just like with me, stretching it out will just make it worse when it does eventually end."

"I know." Harry admitted. "I just wish things could be different."

"Who knows? Maybe in a couple of years, things will be different and you can make another go of it."

"Maybe." Harry said. "Maybe."


	21. Twenty-One

**A/N: Fair warning, my writing on this piece has slowed dramatically. Between life and another personal writing project, I've not been spending much time working on this recently. Thankfully, I have several chapters banked before I catch up with where I'm at. I hope to keep putting out a chapter every two weeks. If that is no longer possible, I'll make sure to warn you in another note.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

* * *

Despite Harry's desire to talk to Cho, life just didn't seem to be cooperating. Two weeks crawled by with Harry spending only marginally less time working on his classwork. However, his Friday detentions with Elizabeth and Ethan had become a rather fun distraction to the end of his week. While they hadn't even come close to hitting him, let alone defeating him, they had managed to stop insulting each other long enough to formulate some strategies.

Granted, the strategies themselves weren't that good but it was something.

At the same time, Harry's life inside Hogwarts had relaxed ever so slightly. For the first time in weeks, Harry had been able to spend the previous Friday evening after "observing" detention in the Gryffindor Common Room, hanging out with Parvati, Ginny and a recovering Dennis Creevey. It had been a wonderfully good time with Harry feeling more at ease than he had been all year long.

The first Monday of November, the very week that the Tournament of Champions was set to begin, was a strange day, however. Harry had been sitting in on Defense Against the Dark Arts with Bill when the Headmistress herself came to collect Harry. Exactly why, she wouldn't say.  
That is until Harry arrived in her office and saw Gawain Robards waiting for them.

"Headmistress, what is this?"

"Don't worry." Gawain said. "This is not a plea for you to join the Aurors."

"Then what exactly is it?" Harry asked.

"Take a seat, Harry." Minerva said. "I think you'll be interested in what Gawain has to say."

That certainly piqued Harry's interest. He did what she instructed and sat in one of the chairs across from Minerva while Gawain sat in the other.

"What's this all about?"

"Well, Harry, you'll be happy to know that we've seen the largest influx of qualified Auror candidates in years."

"That's good."

"Yes, the largest problem is that we are woefully under equipped to handle them."

"How so?" Harry questioned.

"A typical Academy class is anywhere from ten to fifteen students. That seems to be the sweet spot in terms of class size. A smaller class isn't worth our time and a larger class becomes too much to handle. In comparison, the class size that your friend Ron is currently with is twenty-six students."

"Merlin."

"Exactly." Gawain echoed. "So we are at a point where we need more instructors. But at the same time, the Minister and I both believe that the Department could use some updated training methods. It is our goal to effectively redesign how we train our instructors and we would like your help with that."

That certainly was not the pitch that Harry was expecting.

"Why me?"

"Because your methods work. In the last three years, we've seen quite a few former members of Dumbledore's Army become Aurors."

"Other than Ron and Neville?"

"Yes. Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot and Ernie MacMillan have all enrolled in the same class as Ron and Neville. Alicia Spinnet has been on the job about a year now and Lee Jordan about two years. Alicia was the highest rated Auror in her class while Lee was third. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Ron and Neville are fighting for the top spot while the other three are all in the top ten."

"What's your point?"

"They were all trained by you." Gawain replied. "Dumbledore's Army may have originally been conceived as a study group, but you trained soldiers. They fought in two large scale battles with less casualties than the Order of the Phoenix. Each of these students think about battle the same way, they fight the same way and when asked, each of them credits you for their skill and style."

"I don't have any particular training." Harry admitted. "I just survived."

"Harry, regardless of what you may believe, it takes some natural talent to get into any kind of one-on-one scenario with Voldemort and then survive. Even if your wand may have assisted you, you are in the small percentage of people who would have lived in that scenario."

"That's great." Harry replied. "I still don't understand what that has to do with the DA."

"These students all came to the Auror Academy well ahead of their peers. We don't need you to produce more students like that. What I need from you is to pass on just how you taught these students to our instructors."

"Wait, so you want me to teach your teachers how to teach?"

"Our success rate at the Auror Academy is about eighty percent. As it stands, your success rate is one hundred percent and they don't just pass, your students excel."

Harry didn't think of himself as much of a teacher. Even as he got ready to become a teacher himself, he still thought of himself as a bit of novice. But with Bill and Minerva expressing so much confidence in him over the last few weeks and now the Ministry of Magic asking Harry to teach their instructors, it led some weight to the idea that he may have actually been good at this.

"What do you want me to do?"

"We would like you to take a month next summer." Gawain said, handing Harry a list of Aurors. "These Aurors have been identified as our new instructors. Some of them have been at the Academy forever, others are new. We want you to teach them what exactly you were looking for and how you ran your classes."

"This will change everything about the Academy." Harry replied. "You'll be changing the entire training course to mirror the methods that I teach your instructors."

"Harry, that's the point." Minerva finally added with a smile on her face. "When all is said and done, there will be no one more influential to the future of the Aurors."

That was something that Harry had not considered. She was right. If Harry went through with this, he would effectively be rewriting how the Aurors taught. While he wouldn't have an impact on their actions or their policy, he would be the focal point of restructuring exactly how they thought.

"If I do this," Harry started, not quite believing the words that came out of his mouth. "I want more than just to train them. I want something more substantial."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to be placed in charge of the instructors personally." Harry replied before looking up at Gawain. "I'm going to be the Defense Professor here at Hogwarts in two years' time. I will be feeding all your potential students to you. If I'm training the instructors and effectively selecting your students for you ahead of time, why wouldn't we just consolidate the educational side of the Auror Academy to one person?"

"You want to run the Academy?"

"No." Harry said with a laugh. "Someone else can worry about the day-to-day operation. I want to oversee the educational side of things. From their first year in Hogwarts until they graduate from the Auror Academy, every single class they ever take will be under my supervision."

"That's quite the request." Gawain said. "I have to admit that I am intrigued by the idea. Currently, the operation of the Auror Academy is run by the Auror Office, which takes away valuable resources and personnel from the Department. But if you could hire retired Aurors and instructors separate from the active Aurors-"

"Then you could more adequately use your personnel and I could hire staff more suited to teaching than to fighting."

"It is something to consider. Would you consider it, Minerva?"

Harry turned to her. If Minerva decided against the idea, it would certainly be dead in the water. Harry had an obligation to her and to the school. If she didn't feel that Harry could do both jobs, he would choose Hogwarts over the Ministry every day of the week.

Thankfully, it didn't come to that. When asked the question, Minerva simply smirked.

"I hired a seventeen-year-old to teach my students not because of his age but because of his ability." she said softly. "I'll help him expand his reach anyway I can, even if it means hiring an assistant for him at Hogwarts."

"Wonderful." Gawain replied. "Well, this is not how I expected this meeting to go but I must say that this is an interesting idea. I will take it to the Minister, but I am certain that he will be in favor. If that's the case, Harry, we'll begin work once you get done with school in June."

"Yes, sir."

"I need to get back to the Ministry." Gawain said as he stood. "Minerva, Harry: have a great day and I will talk to you soon."

With a quick nod to each of them, Gawain turned and walked back through the fireplace, shouting "The Ministry of Magic!" as he did. For a second after Gawain left, neither Harry or Minerva spoke. Instead, they simply watched the space where Gawain had just been.  
It was Minerva, moments later, who spoke first.

"That's quite a thing you just did there, Harry."

"Yeah." Harry replied, the weight of what he had just proposed finally hitting him.

"If it comes to pass, you will have done a wonderful thing."

"You think so?"

"The largest problem that the Aurors have had over the years is that their training methods are antiquated and not at all in line with the educational standards that Hogwarts sets." Minerva explained. "As a result, students leave Hogwarts with one set of knowledge and skills, arrive at the Academy and suddenly realize that the skills they are equipped with are not what they need. Over the years, we've tried to adapt to what they teach but it's hardly standard between their instructors. If you can standardize the instruction at the Academy and then teach the students at Hogwarts that material, not only will you make the Academy better, but you will be in a better position to identify potential Aurors as early as their third year at Hogwarts."

"Sounds like it's going to be a lot of work." Harry said nervously.

"It will be." Minerva admitted. "But if there's anyone that I believe can do it, it's you."

Hermione's reaction when Harry told her what he had suggested was slightly different. Instead of a typically calm and measured response, she jumped into Harry's arms, crushing him in a hug.

"Harry, that's wonderful!" she shouted as she nearly picked Harry off the ground.

"Can't. Breathe." Harry sputtered as Hermione put him down while apologizing profusely. "It's okay."

The pair were taking some time to themselves after dinner that day before they started on their coursework.

"I can't believe that you managed to worm your way into a policy position at the Ministry before you left Hogwarts."

"Hey, I didn't worm my way into the job. They offered me one job. I just accepted another."

"You know what I meant." Hermione replied. "The fact that the Ministry never once thought about having someone standardize the educational standards between Hogwarts and the Auror Academy is insane."

"Well, they are standard. They just aren't the same. At least that's what it sounds like. But imagine how much better things would be if they were."

"Listen to you." Hermione said with a smirk.

"What?"

"You're talking about educational standards the same way that you used to talk about Quidditch formations." Hermione commented. "It's a good look on you."

"Stop it." Harry replied. "You can't tell anyone about this. It'll ruin my reputation."

"Your reputation as a lay about?" Hermione said with a smirk.

"I was not a lay about!" Harry countered. When Hermione gave him a knowing look, Harry wilted. "OK. Maybe I was a bit lazier than I should have been."

"You think?" Hermione replied. "You're going to spend your summer literally designing a school?"

"I'm going to need some help."

"If I'm allowed, you know that I'll be there for you."

"Good." Harry smiled.

The rest of the week moved by slowly with the rest of the school growing more and more excited as the first round of the Tournament of Champions approached. Harry allowed Elizabeth and Ethan to move their detentions to Thursday evenings for the remainder of the term so that they could both compete. Although Harry hadn't spent much time teaching either of them, they had seemed to improve ever so slightly with each detention.

Maybe they had a shot.

The Tournament worked relatively simply. Each student that submitted their name was ranked by the Head of their House within each year. During the first round, each Year would have a tournament until only one person from each Year in each House was left. After that, the winner of the First and Second year would face each other. Then, the winner of that match would face the Third-Year winner and so on until they reached the Seventh-Year winner.

Once that last match occurred, then a champion from each House would be crowned. Once each House had a champion, those champions would duel each other until one was left: The Hogwarts Champion. That Champion would then duel Harry for the opportunity to be the Grand Champion. Harry, as the goal for each student, would have a special seat at the front of the Great Hall where the duels will take place so that every student in the school could see who they were ultimately going to face, the living motivation for every one of them.

The first day would be the duels for the first and second years in each House. Two separate dueling arenas had been set up in the Great Hall with two others in the Entrance Hall. Considering almost every student in the school had put their name in for the Tournament, they were going to need all the space they could get.

The evening started with a relatively mundane opening address by Headmistress McGonagall before the duels began. Each of the four Head of Houses stood and watched the duels to ensure that no permanently damaging spells were used. The rules were relatively simple. Either knock your opponent off the platform, knock them out, Disarm them or get them to give up.  
That first night from his perch at the front of The Great Hall, Harry didn't see any of the first three options.

While it was nice that everyone could compete in this Tournament, it was also completely hilarious trying to watch his First and Second year students attempt to duel. While there were a few random instances of genius (including a second year who kept shooting water at their opponent until they slipped and fell off the platform), mostly it was just eleven-year olds throwing sparks at each other with the rare Knockback Jinx thrown in for good measure.

Still, it was a bit of good fun to watch as each House crowned their first and second year champions, each fit with a crown and scepter that they could wear to the Yule Ball.  
It was the next week when the Third and Fourth years got their turn that the level really grew. Among the dozens of duels that Harry watched that night, there were clearly some future Aurors among them. Not surprisingly, one of the standouts was Dennis Creevey, who appeared to be more confident and secure with each passing day. Through the four duels that he appeared in that night, three of them were over in than a minute and the fourth only lasted that long because his opponent refused to cast any spells, simply jumping out of the way of the ones that Dennis cast.

In order to finally defeat her, Dennis simply started walking towards her, casting as he went until he was only a few feet away. Finally, she stuck out her wand to attack.

Then, Dennis grabbed it and pulled it out of her hand. While it wasn't technically a legal move, no one was going to fault him for being frustrated with the girl.

Overall, the Tournament seemed to be having the desired effect. It was all that anyone could talk about. Certainly, there was still some House rivalry happening, but it was far more subdued. No more worrying about who was a Pureblood or a Muggleborn. Instead, they were all convinced that their Champion was eventually going to beat Harry Potter, even though no one that had yet dueled would have even stood a chance against him.

The following Saturday, Harry was in the Great Hall early to eat breakfast before a marathon day in the library when Ginny took a seat next to him.

"Look at this." she said as she threw The Daily Prophet in front of him. The main byline read:

 _DEATH EATERS ATTACKED_

 _Family members of people who were killed at The Battle of Hogwarts attacked a group of Death Eaters being transferred from the holding cells to the Wizengamot's main courtroom yesterday. While the Death Eaters who were attacked have not been named, the assault is rumored to have been led by Ministry official Lawrence Brown, a clerk for the Department of Magical Transportation. Brown, 52, was the father of Lavender Brown, a student killed by Fenrir Greyback during the Battle of Hogwarts. Greyback has been charged with her death among a litany of other crimes by the Death Eater Tribunal._

 _Brown was arrested and has a court date set for Monday morning. He will likely be charged with assault, a charge that can carry a two-year sentence in Azkaban. No other conspirators have been named at this time._

"That's awful." Harry replied. "I can't imagine what he's going through."

"Me neither." Ginny agreed. "I met Lavender's father one time when I visited work with Dad. This was years ago before I started at Hogwarts. He seemed like a real nice man."

"He is."

Parvati sat down at the table across from them. She looked terrible. It was clear that she had been crying with her red eyes and heavy bags under her eyes.

"Our fathers worked together." Parvati whispered. "I got a letter from my father last night, telling me this would be in the paper this morning. Larry is the best. Apparently, he'd been spiraling for the last few weeks, drinking a lot and skipping work."

"Things are tough for a lot of people these days." Harry commented. "It's strange because we're here, where a lot of the worst happened, but it feels like being here, we're protected from the consequences of the war. Is that insane?"

"No." Ginny agreed. "Even for those of us that were here all last year, it's like we got back in the routine of what Hogwarts should feel like and that keeps us from the outside world."

"It's part of the problem with Hogwarts, isn't it?" Parvati asked. "We're hundreds of kilometers from the real world here. It's funny that this school is designed to help us transition into working for the Ministry, that's where most of us will work anyway, and yet it's literally as far away from society as it can be."

"Yeah, but that's part of its charm." Harry argued. "It wouldn't be as interesting to come to Hogwarts if it was in the middle of London."

"If the school was in London, we wouldn't know the difference." Parvati replied. "We would just get used to it. Plus, isn't it the people who really make this place? I mean, the castle is largely fixed and even though we can say that it's kept us from feeling the problems of the outside world, does it feel the same to you?"

"No, it doesn't."

"That's because there are people that should be, people that were always here who aren't anymore." Parvati said, tears pooling in her eyes. "We could have Hogwarts in a barn in the middle of the Sahara Desert and as long as the people were all there, it would still be Hogwarts."

"It would be a tough sell, but I suppose you're right." Harry replied. Just as Harry spoke these words, an owl dropped a letter onto Harry's lap. Harry opened it to see a note from Cho, asking him if he was free for dinner that night. While he wasn't free, Harry knew that he needed to see her to figure out once and for all if this relationship was something that he wanted to continue.

That evening, rather than working on the Charms essay that he desperately needed to finish before Monday morning, Harry sat in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place with Cho seated on the other side of the table. When she had arrived, Harry had tried to start making dinner, but Cho had stopped him and asked him to sit down.

Now, Harry sat and waited for Cho to speak. Finally, she did.

"I know neither of us wanted all of this to go down this way." she said sadly, her eyes fixed on the table between them. "But I think we both know this isn't going to work out."

"I know." Harry muttered in agreement.

"We tried, right? I just don't think we fit. Not as a couple anyway."

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "We tried. I kept trying to tell myself that our conflicts would just be this year but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it's just fundamental to who we are. Maybe I could have believed that it was going to be temporary, that things would have gotten better once I was just a professor and not a thousand other things at the same time. Then, I went out and agreed to work with the Ministry in standardizing Defense education."

"Meredith is still not happy about that, by the way."

"Why?"

"Well, as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she wasn't consulted at all on that idea." Cho explained. "You and Robards talked and then Robards talked to the Minister. The ball was already moving on the idea when Meredith found out."

"To be fair, we didn't talk to the Department of Magical Education either." Harry admitted. "But you have to admit the idea is good."

"Of course I think the idea is good. The fact that Hogwarts and the Academy have never had a standardized educational plan is insane. The fact that it's being created and facilitated by you is even better. But there are still pathways to go through."

"That's Robards' concern." Harry countered. "Anyway, the point of bringing that up was to say that even though I'm not in a position to go out and save the world anymore, I want to be involved. I'm already a member of the Wizengamot, which I intend to become a more active member in once I've graduated from Hogwarts, in addition to my other work duties. I'm certain that when the time comes, I will be looked at to support someone to replace Kingsley."

"I understand what you mean. I feel the same way. Life is just very busy right now. I think we're really good together, but we don't know each other well enough yet to be able to deal with the time apart that our lives create without simply drifting away from each other."

"I agree." Harry said sadly. "I am glad that we gave this a chance though. At the very least, we can remain friends, right?"

"I hope so." Cho replied. "Having Harry Potter as a close friend is very advantageous for a rising Ministry official."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry chuckled. He knew that he shouldn't have been laughing in that moment. His first post-Ginny relationship had just ended. But Harry knew that the relationship had actually ended the day that he had gone to Hogwarts.

It had just taken that long to finally end.

"Do you want some dinner?" Harry asked as he stood and moved to the oven. "I had bought some pasta in case we actually got around to eating."

"That sounds wonderful."

Harry and Cho enjoyed the rest of the evening, not as a couple, but as friends. While things hadn't quite worked out the way that Harry had wanted, he was glad that they had tried. Looking back, one of his greatest unanswered questions had been related to his relationship with Cho. What would have happened if he hadn't met up with Hermione during their Hogsmeade visit?

Maybe it was possible that a relationship was never in the cards for Harry and Cho. The fact that neither of them seemed entirely broken up over the disillusionment of their relationship said something about how much it had meant to the other. Part of that likely had to do with the fact that their relationship still seemed fine, they had simply removed a label from it.

The other part likely had to do with the fact that while they were friends, they weren't built for any sort of monogamous relationship.

At least not with each other.

Harry and Cho spent the next couple of hours updating the other on what had happened over the last couple of months since they had last seen each other while sharing a home cooked meal and a bottle of wine. In the end, Harry told Cho that he needed to return to school so that he could work on his essay.

Before they left, both Harry and Cho agreed that they should meet once a month for dinner. At the very least, having the ear of the chief counselor for the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would be nice. But it would also be nice to have dinner with a friend.

That night, Harry returned to Hogwarts and almost immediately fell asleep. When he woke in the morning, his initial plan was to work on his Charms essay or practice for his Defense Against the Dark Arts demonstration due at the beginning of December, just a couple of weeks away. But Harry realized that it had been his obsessive overworking since the beginning of the school year that had been part of the reason his relationship with Cho hadn't worked out. Harry mentally committed to working through the night once the rest of the school slept. Instead of working, he dragged Hermione away from her Ancient Runes homework and went to the Gryffindor Common Room where they convinced Ginny and Parvati to come with them. Then, the four of them went to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

They stood outside the entrance of the Ravenclaw Common Room for nearly an hour before someone came out. They were able to convince a random second year to go and get Luna for them. While Harry or Hermione, as Head Boy and Girl, simply could have entered Ravenclaw Tower, each of them felt that was maybe not the best use of their powers.

Finally, Luna came out and Harry lead the group from the castle to the grounds where a recent snowstorm had deposited almost a foot of snow. Before anyone could realize what had happened, Harry had drawn his wand and created what seemed to be hundreds of snowballs that suddenly launched themselves at the others. The last time that Harry had felt free enough to spend this kind of time simply having a snowball fight had been his first year, when the Weasley twins had bewitched two snowballs to bounce off Professor Quirrell's turban.

Of course, none of them had realized they had been bouncing off Voldemort's face, which just made Harry laugh.

However, the largest difference between the last snowball fight he had participated in and now was that as a first year, he could only throw sparks with his wand. Now, five of them, all rather skilled with their wands, created a maelstrom of snowballs that whipped back and forth. Almost immediately, sides were formed with Harry and Luna on one side with Hermione, Ginny and Parvati throwing from the other. Within just a couple of minutes, Luna had conjured a castle that stood over ten meters tall, made entirely out of snow. At the same time, Parvati had created an almost exactly replica of Gryffindor Tower, complete with the House sigil on the side.

For almost an hour, each side fought try and bring down the others' structures. While Hermione's team got close, it was finally Harry and Luna who managed to destroy the mock Gryffindor Tower by creating a snowball twice as tall as Hagrid and then Banishing it. While the weight of the snowball meant that it didn't move very fast, there was nothing that the other three could do to stop it, forcing them to abandon their frozen tower before the massive snowball hit and caused a near-tsunami of snow to come rushing away.

Harry and Luna charged the remains of the tower, climbing to the top of the pile of snow where Harry conjured a flag with a lightning bolt that he placed at the top. That lasted about ten seconds until Ginny caught it on fire and Parvati charged at Harry, tackling him. They both tumbled down the hill and landed in a pile of snow nearly ten feet deep. Harry and Parvati couldn't help but laugh as they spent the next several minutes struggling to climb out.

It was only then, when they had finally gotten out of the snow hill, that Luna pointed out that they could have just used magic to melt or Vanish the snow. It would have been funny if they weren't so cold. The frozen collective climbed the stairs to Gryffindor Tower when they changed into pajamas and spent the rest of the day sitting in front of the fireplace, just talking and enjoying the company of some friends. If anyone in Gryffindor had any problem with Luna being there, they didn't say anything. Of course, Luna felt a bit like an honorary Gryffindor anyway, considering a large percentage of her friends were in the House.

When it was time for dinner, they all wandered down to the Great Hall and continued their conversation, especially the argument between Harry and Ginny regarding the placement of the Holyhead Harpies. Ginny was of the belief that the Harpies, despite their current mid-table placement, would end up winning the League for the third time in four years next season. Harry disagreed, believing that the Tutshill Tornados or The Pride of Portree, the top teams in the League this season, would likely be the top contenders. After nearly twenty minutes of this, Hermione finally charmed a cup of water to spray both in the face, so they would stop arguing about Quidditch.

It did work...for about fifteen minutes until the next time Ginny brought it up, causing Harry to continue the argument and Hermione to roll her eyes in frustration.

"It's just like if Ron were here." Hermione mumbled.

"You take that back!" Ginny bellowed.

"She's not wrong." Harry admitted. "You're more stubborn about Quidditch than even he is."

Of course, that lead to another twenty-minute argument on Ginny's stubbornness. At that point, Hermione abandoned them to go back to her studies. It took another ten minutes to finally calm Ginny down. By that time, both Parvati and Luna had also returned to their work, leaving Harry and Ginny seated alone in the Great Hall, arguing about Quidditch, Ginny's stubbornness and whether Professor Calhoun, who was seated at the top table, was secretly a vampire.

"How did things go with Cho?" Ginny said, abruptly changing the subject. It was immediately clear that she had been wanting to discuss that. Despite her efforts to appear like this was a normal question to ask, Harry couldn't help but wonder if she had a more personal reason for asking.

"They went well." Harry replied, deciding that if she had other reasons for asking, it would be up to her to address them. "I think we both realized that neither of us are very good at long distance relationships. Plus, we didn't really miss each other when we were gone."

"Are you still friends?"

"I think so." Harry admitted. "I hope so, at least. This is more of a 'not compatible' thing than a 'don't like the other person' thing."

"That's good." Ginny said softly. "I'm glad you got things figured out."

"Yeah. How are things with you and Neville?"

"Well, I haven't seen him since August, so they could be better." Ginny said. "It's not the same as you and Cho, mostly because you have the ability to leave the castle-"

"Which I doubt I will do much of now." Harry commented.

"Really? Why?"

"Who am I going to go visit?" Harry asked. "Ron is in training with Neville. You, Luna and Hermione are here. Those are my closest friends."

"I suppose." Ginny agreed. "Anyway, Ron and Neville will graduate in January before we come back to school. I'm hoping that things will be a bit more normal after that."

"Speaking of graduation," Harry said, deftly shifting the conversation away from relationships, a topic that Harry didn't much want to discuss now. "What do you plan on doing after school? I already have a job and Hermione will, quite literally, get her pick of Ministry positions. But I have no idea what you want to do."

"Well, that depends on a few things." Ginny admitted. "I already have a tryout with the Harpies scheduled for the day after graduation."

"Really? That's wonderful!"

"Yeah. I really think that I want to give Quidditch a try. At the very least, I can do that for a few years and then come back to the real world and get a real job."

"Quidditch is a real job," Harry said, "if it pays you, that is."

"Sure it is." Ginny scoffed. "If that doesn't work, then I might go work with my Dad. Hell, I might go become an Auror. I honestly don't know what I'll do if the Harpies thing falls through."

"I'm certain that you'll do wonderfully at whatever you choose."

"Aren't you sweet?" Ginny replied with a wink.

"On occasion."


	22. Twenty-Two

As November slipped into December, the population of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry focused on two things: The Tournament of Champions and the upcoming Christmas Break. For most of the students, work was starting to pile up as the Professors did their best to squeeze in as much information as humanly possible before Christmas break. Harry's largest focus was his Defense Against the Dark Arts demonstration, which was due on the last day of class before Christmas break.

At the same time, Harry was also watching the Tournament of Champions, attempting to scout out who he might be facing. While Harry didn't necessarily care whether he won or lost, he did care that he put on a good showing. The whole point of putting Harry at the end of the Tournament was to make it a sort of prize for not just the Champion who faced him, but the school in its entirety. If Harry was defeated quickly or embarrassed himself in the process, he worried that it would ruin the feeling the whole Tournament had attempted to create.

As the Tournament had progressed, it had gotten far more intense. Each House was clearly going to be well represented by the time it came to deciding each House's Champion. Gryffindor's had been the most cut and dry of the four. Not surprisingly, Ginny and Hermione had waltzed their way to victory in their respective Years. Once the tournament between each year started, the House fell according to plan. During each duel, the older student had won handedly with Ginny crushing a sixth year boy in a matter of moments.

Now, Ginny would face Hermione for the right to be named Gryffindor Champion. It was by far the most talked about duel of the four. Everyone in the castle knew that both were friends of Harry, making that potential duel exciting. However, they were also close friends themselves, which added another level of intrigue.

Slytherin House also had a certain level of intrigue because it would feature the only duel in the entire tournament between siblings. Daphne and Astoria Greengrass had both crushed their Years and Astoria had beaten her challenger to get the opportunity to duel her older sister. Harry had watched both of them fight and had to say that he was quite impressed by both of their abilities.

Hufflepuff's tournament had been the most interesting, simply because it had featured the most upsets, all of them belonging to one student. Her name was Sophia Rees, a first year Hufflepuff student who managed to beat not only the second year champion but the third and fourth year as well. She had leaned into her skill with one spell (Harry's favorite: The Disarming Charm), managing to dodge spell after spell until she hit with the Disarming Charm.

Finally, the fifth year student had managed to stop her by deflecting the Charm back her, causing her to Disarm herself. Still, it had been a fantastic run and the only victory by a first year over a second year in the entire tournament.

Hufflepuff's Champion would be decided by a final duel between Michael Rogers, the student that Harry had caught attacking Slytherins at the beginning of the year, and Ethan Webb, one of his detention proteges. Ethan's spellcasting had been very good throughout the tournament but Harry was worried that he had met his match in Michael. Michael, despite the fact that he may have been a misguided punk, was an incredibly talented wizard and likely one headed to the Auror Academy when he was done with school.

Ravenclaw's final duel would feature another one of Harry's closest friends, Luna Lovegood, against a Ravenclaw prefect, Helen Dawlish. It was clear based on Helen's abilities that she had worked with her father. Her dueling technique was far more refined that her fifth year status would suggest, shown by her quick defeat of the sixth year Champion.

The last few matches of the Tournament would play out over the last week of classes. The Friday before the Yule Ball would be the House Championships. At that point, match opponents would be drawn randomly for the following Tuesday when the Tournament Semi-Finals would occur. Wednesday evening would be the Tournament final. Once the Tournament Champion had been crowned, they would then duel Harry in the Grand Championship on Thursday evening. It meant for a long week for all of the students involved as they had to juggle practicing for their duels along with finishing their classes.

To ensure that he wasn't seen as playing favorites, Harry had informed Ginny, Hermione and Luna that he would not be helping any of them prepare for their duels. Of course, Ginny had informed him that she didn't want help from someone that she was going to beat next week, a statement that had caused the other three to roll their eyes at her bravado.

While things inside the school had ramped up in intensity, things outside the school had seemed to calm down. Ever since their breakout from Azkaban, the Death Eaters had been astonishingly quiet. Not a single disappearance or attack had been attributed to the new Death Eaters or their leader since that day. While some felt that they were biding their time, planning for one grand assault, others felt that they had escaped only to get out of the country.

Harry hoped it was the latter but assumed it was the former, just to be safe.

Meanwhile, the trial for the Death Eaters limped on. In the last couple of weeks, Arthur Weasley had expressed that Harry's seat in the Wizengamot being consistently empty was not necessarily a good look for him. After a quick check on how proxy voting worked, Harry had selected a proxy for the time being: Cho Chang. While Cho was not necessarily a typical pick, considering her role in the government, Harry had asked if there were any rules against doing so. There were none and since Cho didn't directly influence policy in her position, there was no conflict of interest either.

In the end, it was one vote. Or so Arthur thought.

According to Arthur and Percy, the trials were starting to gather some steam. While things had gone slowly for a time since the breakout, the Wizengamot had finally gathered enough information to begin the real proceedings. This meant that sometime after the first of the year, Harry would likely be called back to the Ministry to testify against a whole list of Death Eaters and their odious ally, Dolores Umbridge.

Thankfully, come the first Friday in December, Harry was able to put that from his mind as he took his seat next to Minerva at the front of the Great Hall. Tonight, there would only be one stage set up in the middle of the Great Hall with bleacher seating on either side, giving everyone in the school the ability to watch the duels and root for their favorite.

When everyone was finally seated and ready to go, Minerva stood and spoke, her voice echoing throughout the Hall.

"Good evening and welcome to the House Championships!" she said to the cheers of the crowd. "A reminder of the rules: Each champion may bring only their wand with them. A duel is considered over when one of the participants is disarmed, knocked unconscious or otherwise removed from the dueling surface. The winner of each match this evening will be named their House Champion and will vie for the right to be named Hogwarts Champion before facing our Grand Champion!"

At the mention of the Grand Champion, a mix of cheers and boos rang out. Certainly, Harry's friends cheered for him while the Slytherins likely rejected him.

"The first duel this evening will pit Ginny Weasley against Hermione Granger for the Gryffindor House Championship."

At the sound of their names, Ginny and Hermione walked through the doors at the end of the Great Hall and took their places on the stage. Both were talking to the other in hushed tones. Knowing Ginny, she was likely trying to psyche Hermione out as a way to gain an advantage over her.

In his mind, Harry couldn't decide who he thought would win this matchup. While Hermione certainly had a more exhaustive list of spells that she could draw from and a sound technical approach to match, Ginny matched that with a raw power that few (including Harry himself) could match. When she threw spells, they didn't just hit their targets, they seemed to crush them. Even the simplest of spells could throw someone back if it came from Ginny Weasley's wand.

Ginny and Hermione stood facing each other and bowed before stepping away and facing the other, just a few paces apart. When Minerva indicated for the duel to begin, Ginny stepped up by throwing a massive Stunner that Hermione blocked before returning with her own Stunner. Despite the simplicity of the spells being used, Harry could see that he was watching the first duel between experts of the entire tournament. Each of them seemed to know exactly where the other would attack and moved to block at the exact proper moment before returning fire. While the other duels had followed a relatively standard pattern of attack, defend, attack, defend, this duel featured entire moments where Ginny would get the upper hand, launching almost a dozen attacks in a row before Hermione could respond with her own chain of attacks.

In the end, it was a specific skill that Ginny possessed that made the difference. For most witches or wizards, the only ways to avoid being hit with a spell were a Shield Charm or to simply dodge out of the way. The only problem with these techniques was that both of them slowed you down considerably.

For that reason, Ginny had come up with an alternative: she would throw Stunners that would hit spells in mid-air, deflecting them away from their target. It was the kind of technique that Harry had utilized over the years and required the kind of intense reflexes and accuracy that could only really be expected from a Quidditch player. Now, rather than dodging or blocking, Ginny could simply deflect spells using another attack in her chain and then keep right on firing.

This ability eventually wore Hermione down to the point where even from the other end of the Great Hall, Harry could tell that she was exhausted. Her wand was slower and her reactions a beat later than expected. Despite all that, Hermione remained a technical force of nature. Anyone else who was as clearly beaten as Hermione would have given up minutes ago. But due to a sheer force of will, she remained on her feet for almost ten minutes, a feat in itself considering just how tired she looked with Ginny finally Disarmed her.

Hermione and Ginny both came to sit on the bleachers nearest Harry. He could tell that Hermione was upset. While she wasn't particularly known as a duelist, losing was not something that Hermione did often. On the other hand, Ginny was beaming, knowing that, at the very least, she had defeated Hermione Granger, Brightest Witch of their Age.

The Ravenclaw Championship was next and unfortunately, a far less interesting duel. While Helen was a gifted duelist in her own right, Luna was a year older and the most creative duelist Harry had ever seen. Two different times during her brief duel against Helen, Luna used the Disillusionment Charm to turn herself invisible. The second time, it allowed Luna to somehow end up on the other end of the platform where she then was able to send a silent Stunner at Helen. Helen saw the Stunner just a moment too late. A second earlier and she may have been able to deflect it.

Unfortunately for Helen, she was just a beat too slow and the Stunner set her flying down the platform, unconscious.

The Slytherin Championship also lacked some interest simply due to the fact that Daphne outclassed her younger sister in every way. Not a single spell cast by Astoria managed to reach Daphne and it took less than three minutes for her to thoroughly beat her, Disarming her and then Stunning her while Astoria's wand floated in the air. The only thing that Harry truly could take away from that duel was how little he wanted to face Daphne Greengrass. Unlike Ginny, who would want to win but wouldn't try to hurt him, Daphne was ruthless. If Daphne was willing to so completely eviscerate her own sister, there would be no mercy for Harry.

The last of the four duels was the one that Harry had expected to be the shortest going in. While Ethan had showed a tremendous amount of progress (as had Elizabeth until she ran into the force of nature that was Daphne Greengrass), Harry didn't initially think that he stood any chance against Michael. Like Daphne or Hermione, Michael operated with a simple efficiency that was to be commended. While there was nothing flashy about what he did, it was incredibly effective. The difference between Michael and those two women, however, was that Michael fired off spells that sought to destroy what they hit. In fact, he had been warned twice by the Headmistress about using spells that could cause some serious damage.

That's why Harry was so surprised when Ethan and Michael were nearly ten minutes into their duel and neither of them had managed to pull away from the other. Ethan had spent the entirety of the duel utilizing a series of interesting techniques. First, every time Michael would attempt to cast a spell, Ethan would cast a Banishing Charm, forcing Michael to abort the spell or risk being thrown off the platform. The second, and more interesting, tactic involved using a spell to create a wind tunnel inside the Great Hall. While it only last for a moment, it had the intended effect.

It blew out all of the candles and torches, bringing the Great Hall to near darkness. At the same time, Ethan had created a series of floating lights that move around like the light at the end of his wand. While Harry couldn't see much in the dark, he could hear the grunts of frustration from Michael that told Harry that Michael was struggling to see just as much as everyone else.

Then, the grunts stopped after a few minutes. Everyone in the school waited in silence and darkness, waiting for something. Finally, Ethan spoke up.

"You can turn the lights on."

With a whip of her wand, the candles in the Great Hall flickered back on to reveal Ethan standing over Michael. Michael had been tied up with ropes that Ethan had clearly conjured in the dark, his wand sitting just out of reach. Harry had to admit that he was impressed by the sixth year. He was the only non-seventh year to become his House's Champion and he did it while using a creativity that Harry didn't believe he had possessed. But Ethan had known that Michael was a better duelist than him and designed a strategy ensuring that dueling ability wasn't what actually won the duel.

With the four Champions selected, each of them approached the front and placed their name inside the Sorting Hat, which had been brought down to The Great Hall specifically for this event. Seconds later, it spit out a pair of names: Ginny Weasley and Daphne Greengrass, meaning Luna would face Ethan. Almost immediately, an energy blossomed around the room that had not been there before.

While some would have preferred the opportunity for a Gryffindor-Slytherin final, considering how much the two Houses traditionally hated each other, the fact of the matter was that there was now a guaranteed matchup between the two Houses.

For the next few days, the school would be a near powder keg, ready to blow at any moment. Meals were stressful with Gryffindors and Slytherins tossing insults at each other from across the Great Hall with the poor Ravenclaw table in the middle. While Harry was definitely pulling for Ginny since she was both his friend and a Gryffindor, there was one person that Harry did not want to face and her name was Luna Lovegood.

All four Champions were gifted students, each with their own peculiarities. Daphne was a clinical finisher much like Hermione while the spells that came out of Ginny's wand were as dangerous as dragon fire. Ethan was the most strategic of the four Champions, constantly changing tactics to exploit his opponent's greatest weakness.

But Luna was the one that worried him. Harry was a relatively traditional duelist. While he had a few tricks up his sleeve, Harry knew that his greatest strength lie in a combination of great power and nearly perfect technique. He was the best part of Ginny and Hermione, a finely tuned machine at this point, having spent so much of the last few months working on wand techniques, dueling strategies and new counter-curses. However, Luna followed none of the traditional rules of a duelist. She used Transfiguration frequently in her spells, transforming rocks and chairs into snakes and badgers to distract, or simply attack, her opponents.

It was for this reason that when Harry was asked about the matchups, he made sure to mention that whoever won in the Gryffindor-Slytherin matchup still had to face the other Champions, both of whom would present quite a challenge to either Ginny or Daphne.

Thankfully, the days between the House Champions and the start of the Tournament of Champions went by rather quickly. In fact, with his large end of term essays completed for both Transfiguration and Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts was the only class that Harry had left. But before Harry could present his December demonstration, two additional duels took place on the final Tuesday of the term.

If the energy had been high for the House Championships, the sheer volume in the Great Hall on the first night of the Tournament eclipsed that tenfold. Students were selling banners, scarfs and hats with their House logos on them, each of them more extravagant than the last. Unfortunately, the Headmistress had been forced to put a stop to the sale of the Slytherin scarves when the charm that made them act like a snake went slightly haywire, causing the scarves to try and strangle anyone who wore them.

When the festivities began, all of the school's Professors and staff took their seats at the High Table with Minerva in her typical chair in the center. In front of the table, Harry sat in his typical spot a few steps in front of Minerva but thankfully a bit lower so that the Headmistress could still see. Once everyone was seated, the House Champions were each introduced individually. When Ginny and Daphne were each introduced, the sound was outrageous with an even number of people cheering as they were booing. On the other hand, Luna and Ethan were both introduced to raucous applause. The fact was that whoever won the duel between the two of them would become the favorite of three of the Houses, evidenced by the lack of jeers when their name was announced.

The first duel would be between Ethan and Luna. While Luna looked as if nothing in the world was bothering her, Ethan was clearly nervous. Even before the duel started, sweat poured from his brow, causing the pits of his cloak to grow dark and damp. That should have been a sign of weakness to begin with and if that hadn't convinced you that Luna was going to easily with this match, then the first series of attacks that she threw the moment the match started should have.

In her previous matches, Luna had done a lot of her damage through strange spells. This strategy had been successful, keeping her opponents from settling into any kind of a rhythm. Whether it was the birds that she conjured to circle Michael Corner's head or the ice that she had put on the platform that caused two different people to simply slide off the edge, she had gone out of her way to show her creativity.

In this match, she was going out of her way to show her brutality. There was no attempt to be cute or creative in this duel. Luna Lovegood, who everyone thought had made this match by being the "weird duelist" (Harry included) took a little over ninety seconds to completely undress Ethan Webb before Disarming him as he fell to the ground. When Luna caught Ethan's wand, the room suddenly went very still as if they were uncertain about what they had just witnessed. While no one had truly expected Ethan to win, they certainly hadn't anticipated Luna thrashing him so completely.

Finally, someone in the crowd started cheering and she handed Ethan back his wand with a smile on her face. Harry wondered as Ginny and Daphne took their places on the platform if Luna hadn't been messing with everyone the entire time, taking the opportunity before her last matchup to truly show everyone was she was capable of. Not only could she win by being coy and clever, she could duel with the best of them.

If the first duel had been quick and succinct, the second was effectively a magical game of Tug-o-War. For thirty seconds, Daphne would press the advantage, using her exceptional technique to place her spells exactly where she wanted them, forcing Ginny to defend herself with sheilds instead of using Stunners to deflect. But, when it seemed that Daphne may take control, Ginny pushed back, throwing spells that sounded like thunder when they hit the shields that Daphne threw in front of them.

Ten minutes went by and still neither witch had been able to break free. At this point, however, neither of them were being particularly technical. Harry knew from personal experience just how draining dueling could be and the rest of the school was seeing the results. Unlike the rapid pace of the beginning of the match, the end slowed to a screeching halt with one witch throwing the biggest spells she could muster, which the other would block and then return with a haymaker of her own.

Finally, Daphne broke through. A Stunner hit Ginny's Shield Charm and caused her to stumble, giving Daphne the perfect opportunity to strike, hitting Ginny with a follow-up. The Disarming Charm caused Ginny's wand to flop out of her hand, the wand gracelessly fall just inches of the edge of the platform.

Just like at the end of the first match that evening, silence was the initial reaction of the crowd. But when both Ginny and Daphne collapsed onto the platform in sheer exhaustion, the room went wild. It took a couple of minutes for Ginny and Daphne to collect themselves and finally move off the platform but when they did, they did so together. They quickly shook hands and then each of them placed an arm over the other's shoulder so that they could lean on each other to get to the first row of the benches.

As Ginny and Daphne showed the exact kind of cooperation and school spirit this Tournament had been created to inspire, Harry turned to Minerva, who was openly crying as she watched the two young women collapse onto the benches. For just a brief moment, her eyes dropped to meet Harry's. Never before had Harry witnessed such raw emotion from Minerva McGonagall, not even on the night of the Battle. This was something different for her. Fighting was not what she wanted. She didn't want everyone to band together so that they could fight someone. Minerva McGonagall wanted Hogwarts to band together because they were a family, something that Ginny Weasley and Daphne Greengrass showed that night in the Great Hall.

Decades later, when people talked about the first Tournament of Champions, they would mention the Grand Championship but the match they would all remember, the one they would reminisce about years later was that duel between a Gryffindor and Slytherin and how slowly but surely, that duel began to break down the barriers of centuries of mistrust.

The next morning, Harry sat in his last class of the fall term. Well, he would have been sitting if Harry's demonstration could have been done in the classroom. As it was, the potential for disaster in the spellwork that Harry was attempting meant that they had left the confines of the typical Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom and instead stood outside on the grounds of Hogwarts.

In the middle of December.

The snow that Harry and his friends had played in almost a month earlier had not quite melted since then with two or three good snows reinforcing the blanket that covered the mountains where Hogwarts resided. Harry could see just how frustrated some of his classmates were with him and for good reason, it was a very cold day.

Harry decided early on that he would do his best to make this presentation brief.

"Last month, I detailed the history of wandless magic in the Defense field." Harry said, his teeth already chattering from the cold. "Each of these skills that I am presenting were essential for the defeat of Lord Voldemort. The second skill, a spell known as The Firestorm, was presented to me by Albus Dumbledore on the night of his death."

"We had left the Hogwarts grounds on a journey to retrieve an artifact that Professor Dumbledore believed would help defeat Voldemort. However, in order to retrieve this artifact, one of us had to drink a poison from the basin in which the artifact lie. But this poison was unlike any other I have ever seen. Instead of killing you, it made you relive your worst memories in vivid detail."

"While I don't know what exactly Professor Dumbledore saw that night," Harry lied, "I do know that it weakened him considerably. When Dumbledore had emptied the basin and I had collected the artifact, Dumbledore asked for a drink of water, a request that should have been simple enough considering we were in a cave filled with water. Unfortunately, no water could be conjured in this cave, making the lake the only available source of water, a lake filled with Inferi."

"When I reached down to fill the shell Dumbledore had been drinking from, a cold, dead hand grabbed me and pulled me under the water. Only seconds later, dozens of hands joined the original, dragging me to a certain death at the bottom of the lake."

"But before the Inferi could drag me too far, they released me. Pulling myself back to the surface, this is what I saw."

Closing his eyes, Harry focused on the technique that had been described. The Firestorm had been a creation of Dumbledore's but the techniques had been passed to enough people that it could be found in the most advanced of Defense texts. Still, the amount of power required to perform the spell meant that for all the instruction in the world, only about one percent of the population could actually manage to perform the spell.

When Harry had decided to perform this spell for his project, he had no idea just how much magic it would take to complete it. In fact, if he had known, Harry likely would have selected something else. But the fact that he had publicly said that he would be performing this spell spurred him on, forcing him to grow and better himself so that he could actually perform the spell.

Harry's wand circled slowly at first with just a few wisps of a flame from a rope around his head. But within just a few seconds, that rope had spread further and further away, thickening as it dropped to the ground, creating a thin wall of flames that spun around Harry. Still, Harry pushed on, focusing all of his magic into the spell until the flames no longer emanated from his wand but were self-perpetuating, creating a thirty meter circle around Harry that stood another ten meters talls. The flames themselves were two meters thick and any attempt to cross through the flames would have incinerated anything that crossed their path.

Harry had attempted the spell twice before this day. While they had both been successful, this attempt was far beyond either of those simply due to the speed at which the flame was moving. Like Dumbledore's iteration, the flame seemed to have a life of its own, spinning wildly with tendrils of wildfire spinning off the cyclone.

The Firestorm lasted for about twenty seconds before Harry simply couldn't stand it anymore. He let the spell go, the flames evaporating into nothing, as he collapsed into the snow. Now he understood why Dumbledore had been so exhausted when he was finished. Even without having taken the potion, Harry felt as if he could barely stand. Thankfully, Ginny was at his side before he could bury himself in the snow, dragging him to his feet.

"Thanks." Harry muttered.

"No problem." Ginny said as she tossed Harry's arm over her shoulders. "Now finish your damn presentation so we can go inside."

"Right." Harry said with a grin before he turned to address the rest of the class. "That spell saved my life. Without it, my body would be at the bottom of a lake. The sheer power of that spell means that while it is highly effective, it is to be used in only the most dire of circumstances."

Harry turned to Bill and Fleur. "That's all I have. Any questions?"

Both Bill and Fleur appeared to be speechless. They simply stared at Harry, their mouths hanging open slightly as the rest of the class applauded wildly. While Harry was sore for the next day and a half after using that spell, that look alone was worth it.

After a few seconds of silence, Fleur turned to the class.

"I believe zat is it for today. Please make sure that you are doing ze reading over break so zat you are ready to continue when we return after ze first of ze year."

"Merry Christmas, everyone." Bill said, the stunned look still on his face as he approached Harry. "Are you alright?"

"I-I could be better." Harry admitted as Fleur came to stand next to her husband.

"Zat was incredible, 'Arry." she replied. "I 'ave never seen anything like zat."

"You say Dumbledore did that while you were hunting for the Horcruxes?" Bill asked. "How weakened was he?"

"Between the curse on his hand and the potion that he had to drink, he might have died by the end of the night even if Snape hadn't intervened."

"Damn." Bill muttered. "He was dying and he still managed to perform that spell. I think we underestimated just how powerful he was."

"We don't do ze same for you." Fleur added with a knowing look.

"I'm just glad that I won't have to duel you." Ginny said.

"Well, I definitely couldn't use that spell in this Tournament anyway."

"But the power required to even produce that spell, let alone at the massive size you create, is incredible. I've never seen anything like it, Harry." Bill replied. "Congratulations, you just got the only perfect score in the class for this month's demonstration."

Harry smiled and then discovered, as he attempted to stand up, that he could hardly hold himself up. Ginny, being the wonderful friend that she was, helped Harry all the way back to his dorm room, even tucking him in. Harry fell asleep almost the moment his head hit the pillow, a clear side effect of the amount of magic Harry had just used.

Though his class was relatively early in the day, Harry slept almost all the way through Wednesday, waking up long enough to walk down the Great Hall for dinner. While he was there, Harry didn't speak. Instead, he spent his twenty minutes in the Great Hall shoveling food into his mouth. In only two days time, he was going to have to duel someone in front of the entire school and if he didn't recover quickly, he would make a fool of himself, the last thing he wanted.

So after a particularly aggressive dinner, Harry returned to his dorm where he slept from early Wednesday evening until almost noon on Thursday. Thankfully, he had already submitted his final term paper for Charms and his demonstration the previous day had been the last DADA class before their holiday. Harry did manage to make one of his DADA tutoring sessions along with the afternoon internship with the first years.

Once that was done, Harry, like everyone else in the school, made his way to the Great Hall for the Tournament of Champions final. And like everyone else, Harry sat in the bleachers. While Harry had sat in a special seat in the front for the rest of the matches, both he and Minerva agreed that this duel, this championship should be about the two students involved. Everyone in the school knew what was at stake for the two of them.

Harry's presence at the front of the school, overlooking all of them would have only made them nervous.

Harry took his seat at the back of the bleachers near the center of the platform with Hermione and Ginny, a great vantage point to watch what was sure to be a great duel. While Ginny was certain that Daphne was going to destroy Luna (a sure sign of her bruised ego roaring forth), Hermione and Harry agreed that the conclusion was not so certain. Luna had shown a great deal in her previous match. If Harry had been in Daphne's place, he wouldn't have known whether to expect the Luna from her first dozen matches in the Tournament, where she had specialized in strange and off-kilter strategies that had succeeded in throwing her opponents off balance, or if Luna would return to the form of her last match, where she had used excellent technique and superior power to soundly defeat Ethan.

The fact that Daphne had to think about it at all meant that she had been forced to prepare for either strategy. Now, instead of being completely prepared, she was likely only half-prepared for either. On the flip side, Luna had watched Daphne commit to a strategy of excellent accuracy and technique. While Daphne had proved a couple of times over the Tournament that she could use brute strength when it was required, it was evident that it put her out of her comfort zone, something that Luna could easily use to her advantage.

But that would imply that Luna was thinking along the same lines as Harry and Harry was relatively certain that Luna Lovegood thought along the same lines as no one.

Suddenly, the lights in the Great Hall dimmed, leaving only a line of candles hovering over the platform, illuminating it from end to end as Daphne and Luna entered the Great Hall. Each wore simple black robes with their respective Houses' coat of arms on the chest, the standard but oft forgotten uniform of all Hogwarts students.

They stood shoulder to shoulder as they walked, neither looking at the other. As they walked by Harry, Hermione and Ginny, he could tell that was mostly out of nerves. Despite the fact that neither of them had done anything, both were sweating, the shine of the candles reflecting on their foreheads.

Both reached the edge of the platform where they stood and bowed at those sitting at the Head Table before returning to the center of the stage, taking positions opposite each slowly. When Daphne turned to face Luna, there was suddenly an energy in the room that had not been there before. For every other student in the room, the stakes had never been more clear.

One of these students would get to face Harry Potter.

Luna and Daphne never broke eye contact as they each raised their wands in front of their faces before dropping them and turning in a single motion, their robes flipping out almost simultaneously. Slowly and deliberately, each took five steps before again raising their wands in front of their faces.

Then, each of them snapped into their starting positions with Luna holding her wand at waist-level, clearly ready to defend, while Daphne held her wand high over her head. Within a second, her wrist would be able to snap and fire the first spell. It was clear that they had each prepared for this moment. Already, they were able to perfectly anticipate how the other would begin and sought to take advantage.

For a single second, the two froze in this position. Then, Minerva McGonagall's voice cried out:

"Begin!"

With a quick flourish of her wand, Daphne threw a Stunner at Luna that she quickly blocked. Normally, if someone attempted to Stun you, the obvious reaction was to return the favor but Luna did not. Instead, she simply stood there, a smile on her face.

Daphne looked confused and for a moment, she paused, waiting for Luna to do something. When it was clear that Luna was going to do nothing, she attacked again, this time attempting to Disarm Luna. Again, Luna blocked the spell and again, she did nothing.

A third time Daphne attacked and for a third time, Luna deflected the attack and then did nothing. Harry was confused. While Luna had always been a bit odd (a trait that he had discovered was quite endearing), this was stretching it. Luna never sought out attention but that was the only thing that Harry could think of: Luna was looking for attention.

The thought echoed in Harry's mind over and over again.

Luna was looking for attention. Why? She had never wanted attention before. Plus, if she wanted attention, this was not the right way of going about getting it. Luna was a bit of an outcast anyway, despite the fact that her best friends were the most famous people in the school. This kind of strategy would only seek to push her further away from people who thought that she was a bit too weird for their liking.

"Harry." Hermione said, nudging him with her elbow.

"I know. This is weird."

"Harry, look up."

Harry did and that's when Harry saw what was going on. Luna was, in fact, looking for attention. She had gained the attention of everyone in the room, specifically Daphne Greengrass' attention. In that time, every candle in the room had been lit again and slowly but surely was moving ever so slowly towards the platform until every candle in the room hovered above the platform.

If they were dropped, they would land just behind where Daphne stood, no doubt catching the platform on fire instantly.

It was a remarkably subtle piece of magic. Now that Harry looked closer, he could tell that Luna's eyes looked just slightly above Daphne's head, focusing on the candles instead of her opponent. Each time Daphne attacked, Luna took her attention away from the candles, causing some of them to go out and others to almost fall from the sky.

But each time, Luna managed to deflect the attack and in the same motion, hidden just moments after the Shield Charm had disappeared, she regained control of the candles, beginning to move them closer to their target, inch by inch.

The first time one of the candles dropped from the sky, it landed on the platform and went out, causing Daphne to turn and see what had fallen. The second time a candle fell, it landed on the hems of Daphne's robe, immediately causing them to catch fire.

What happened next was nothing short of brilliant. While Daphne worked to get her robe off, Luna dropped the rest of the candles onto the platform. While one of the candles likely would not have done any real harm, the dropping of nearly two hundred candles onto the platform simultaneously meant that it was almost immediately caught fire.

Now, Luna stood with her wand outstretched while Daphne fought to throw off her robes. At the same time, if she moved any further back, she would be stepping into an already forming inferno. Realizing her predicament, Daphne finished removing her robe before drenching it in water. When she turned to do the same to the platform behind her, Luna struck, sending a series of three Stunner towards the Slytherin.

Now, Daphne was faced with a choice: flames or Stunners. Not surprisingly, she chose the Stunners, deflecting them before returning fire with three Stunners of her own. But as she did that, the carpet of the platform caught fire in earnest, the flames growing to almost the height of Daphne herself.

With more and more of the platform catching fire each second, Daphne was forced to step closer and closer to Luna. She cast charm after charm as she stepped closer and closer until Luna and Daphne could almost touch the ends of their wands together.

Suddenly, Luna aimed her wand at the floor. A great flash of white light illuminated the room, causing everyone to cover their eyes and groan in pain.

In that moment, Luna took her chance. She aimed her wand back up at Daphne and fired a spell that immediately covered everything in ice. No longer was the platform on fire.

Now, it was an ice slide, one that could be used with a clever Banishing spell, which is exactly what Luna did. With a single flip of her wand, Daphne was knocked off her feet and onto the icy floor. Unable to regain her balance, she slid the entire length of the platform before falling off the edge.

Immediately, the room exploded with cheers and applause. Members of Ravenclaw House rushed the platform as Minerva repaired the platform to ensure that no one slipped and hurt themselves. A great mass of people filled the platform, each of them cheering Luna's name.

"Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna! Luna!"

The cries echoed through the Great Hall, the name of Hogwarts's oddest champion ringing clear. Fighting her way to the center of the crowd, where a group of students had grabbed Luna and hoisted her onto their shoulders, the Headmistress grabbed Luna's left hand and raised it to the sky.

"Witches and wizards, your Hogwarts Champion! I give you, Luna Lovegood!"

Harry stood and applauded with the rest of the school, smiling as he realized that Luna had, at some point over the last year, become one of the most talented witches in the entire school.

Now, he was going to have to face her in front of the entire school. Harry was certain that he was up to the task.

But after the performance she had put on tonight, he was certain that she was as well.


	23. Twenty-Three

The next night, Harry sat in a familiar place. He had been in this room three times. The first time, he had named a Triwizard Champion. The second, he had taunted the corpse of his greatest enemy.

The third? He waited with his opponent for the evening, anticipating the sign that they were able to enter the Great Hall and finally end The Tournament of Champions. Harry stood over the same platform that had once held dozens of trophies and then Voldemort's body, the image in his mind superimposed over the reality that there was nothing there anymore. At the same time, Luna sat in a chair in the corner of the room, her eyes never leaving Harry as he paced the room.

Finally, Harry couldn't take it any longer and wandered away from her so that she couldn't look at him anymore.

"You're different." Luna said as Harry walked away.

"Like you're one to talk." Harry chuckled, instantly recoiling from the cruel tone in his voice. He knew why he had said that.

He was nervous even though he knew that there was no reason to be nervous. Even if he lost, it was a stupid tournament for school. He had survived dozens of situations that he had no business living through. That was certainly more important than winning a duel against one of his closest friends, right?

But, there was something about living up to the reputation that he had built up for himself that frightened him. Most of his "best work" had been done away from the public eye. The stories of his exploits were just that for most people. Now, they were all going to see Harry for what he was. Harry Potter, The Man Who Lived, The Man Who Defeated Voldemort, Triwizard Champion, Future Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor: all of that would come crashing down around his ears if he lost. While he didn't want to embarrass Luna (and he knew he wouldn't be able even if he wanted to), he knew that there was a part of his reputation that would suffer if he lost, a reputation he was using to build his career and the rest of his life on.

"Well that's not very nice." Luna shot back.

"You're right. I'm sorry." Harry admitted. "Why am I different?"

"You never used to care what people thought about you."

"Why do you think I care now?"

"Because you're pacing this room. You have no reason to be nervous to face me. Everything I know, you taught me."

"That's clearly not true. I never taught you that candle trick."

"Not specifically, no. But you did give me the idea."

"How?"

"Don't try and be anyone but yourself." Luna said. "We all have different skills. Find yours and use them."

"That's nice. Who said that?"

"You did," Luna replied, leaving Harry speechless, "during one of our DA training sessions. It was one of the things that I held on to. I know that I'm...peculiar. But here was Harry Potter, telling all of us to embrace the skills that made us unique."

"I...don't remember saying that." Harry admitted.

"I don't remember exactly when you said it. Obviously some time before Umbridge caught us but not long before that. We had moved on to fake duels. At the end of the night, you gathered us all together and that was part of what you said."

"Well, it does sound a bit like something I would say." Harry agreed. "I'm glad that you took it to heart."

Luna smiled. "In any case, I've watched you duel, Harry. I don't think you'll have any problem with me."

"Keep telling me that and maybe you'll convince me." Harry answered. "You really have been something. That duel against Ethan was perfect."

"How so?"

"Using the fact that everyone expected you to come out and do weird things to your advantage."

"Oh. Well, I didn't think too much about it, to be honest. I just thought I would go out and try something different. See if I couldn't throw him off a bit."

"I'd say you did just that." Harry said with a smile as the door opened to reveal Hagrid leaning into the doorframe.

"We're ready for yeh."

"Thanks, Hagrid." Harry said as he turned to Luna. "You ready?"

"Are you?"

"Good luck." Harry said, offering his hand to Luna. She took his hand and used it to pull herself up before looking Harry directly in the eye.

"Don't need it." Luna said with a bizarre smile. Then, she turned and marched from the chamber, leaving Harry standing alone.

"Shit." Harry muttered to himself. He knew that he was in trouble. Luna, while still a bit bizarre, was certainly different since the death of her father. The vacant and whimsical looks that she had given people over the years had gradually disappeared. In their place, she had become far too aware of the world around her, silently observing people. In fact, if you closed one eye and tilted your head just right, Luna Lovegood could do a pretty decent impression of one of Harry's favorite Aurors, although not even Tonks would have been crazy enough to attempt her candle trick.

Racing up the stairs, Harry caught up with Luna who threw him a smirk before the two of them walked out the door, presenting themselves to the entire student body of Hogwarts. Harry stepped up onto the platform before he turned back to Luna, offering a hand to assist her. Luna, in all her mad glory, rejected Harry's assistance and instead levitated herself into the air, landing on the platform just a few feet in front of Harry.

Rolling his eyes, realizing that Luna had probably been acting like this for weeks behind the scenes, psyching out her opponents with her behavior. In the later rounds, the opponents had been put in the same room before the match just like he had with Luna tonight. There was no doubt that Luna had been devising strategies for how to throw each of her opponents off their game before the duel even started.

Subconsciously, Harry wondered if the Sorting Hat had given a thought to putting Luna in Slytherin. At the very least, this version of Luna was certainly displaying some of their favorite traits.

Finally, they reached the end of the platform where Deputy Headmaster Flitwick stood. He stepped in between the pair of them and walked to the center of the room, where his typically soft voice echoed over the crowd.

"Decades ago, I was a student just like you." he said softly, though magic allowed his voice to be heard by all. "Just like these two students, I wished to become the Hogwarts dueling champion. In that time, there was a Dueling Club and the head of it was the school's champion. Anyone could challenge the Champion at any time. If any active Champion graduated from the school, another was selected from among the seventh year students in the Dueling Club."

"This pattern continued until some time roughly twenty years ago when interest in dueling dwindled to the point where Professor Dumbledore was forced to close the dueling club entirely. It has been over twenty years since Hogwarts had an official Champion, something that can only be remedied by another Champion."

"According to the original bylaws of the Dueling Club, if the position of Champion was ever vacated, a prior Champion could select two students to duel for the right to become Champion."

At that moment, Flitwick turned back to Harry and Luna, a proud smile on his face.

"As former Champion of the Hogwarts Dueling Club, I am invoking that right tonight. This means that the winner of tonight's Tournament of Champions will officially inherit the title of Hogwarts Dueling Champion!"

Well, if there wasn't enough pressure on Harry already, this certainly dialed it up a notch. Luna elbowed Harry gently, then pointed around the room.

Clearly, Luna was executing her mind games perfectly. The room was almost entirely blue. There were posters of Luna's face, magically enchanted to wink every so often. Every so often, the version of Luna on the posters would also take off her radish earrings and throw them at the front of the poster, which caused an _actual radish earring_ to come out of the poster.

If someone didn't show that to Flitwick for extra credit in Charms, it would truly be a shame.

Strange poster magic aside, it was clear that almost everyone in the room was rooting for Luna. This had been the point, after all. When Harry, Daphne and Minerva had originally come up with the idea for the Tournament, it had been Harry's idea to make himself the target at the end in the hopes that the school would turn on him and, in turn, unite with each other.

Seeing only a few spots of red among the blue and gold, Harry would say that it was a job well done and in that moment, just as soon as his nerves had appeared earlier, they were gone. Harry had forgotten the whole point of this Tournament: unity. While they all wore the colors of Ravenclaw House, it was telling that they _all_ wore it. Looking around, Harry saw maybe two dozen people wearing Gryffindor colors.

That meant that there were definitely some Gryffindors out there rooting for Luna. Normally, Harry would have been upset but in this moment, when their plan had worked to such perfection, he couldn't help but be proud of his school.

He also decided, in that moment, to put on one hell of a show.

Harry and Luna, like every other set of duelists that had fought on that platform, marched shoulder to shoulder to the center of the platform. Harry stopped first, giving Luna the opportunity to play the crowd for a moment before she turned to face Harry.

Luna was loving the attention she was getting. Now, Harry would get to see if she was really as good as she looked. Harry drew his wand to his face, mirroring Luna before dropping the wand to his side.

"See you on the other side." Luna muttered before turning. Harry followed suit and took his five steps before turning, his wand flipped in front of his face, the palm of his hand facing the sky like a Muggle fencer. Over the course of the year, Harry had learned to start from this position as it afforded him the ability to go on offense or defense first.

Luna, on the other hand, had returned the waist-high approach that she had utilized to start the previous duel. Harry thought that she would be crazy to try the candle trick again. But, he also knew that the fact that he was thinking about it was the whole point.

She knew that he would recognize the position and consider the tactic. Thinking, not reacting. It would slow him down a bit.

"Begin!" Flitwick shouted.

Rather than give her the opportunity to try and play mind games, Harry started with one of his own. Harry raised his wand to the sky.

" _Sortem Glacies!"_

Almost immediately, rain began to fall from the ceiling. While the charms that had allowed the roof to look like the sky had never been fixed, the roof had, which allowed him to charm the roof so that it would start precipitating.

However, as Luna would shortly find out, it wouldn't just be rain. Only moments after the rain started, it quickly changed to sleet and then fully to snow. Less than ten seconds into the duel, Harry had summoned a full blizzard inside the Great Hall. Typically, this spell would slowly turn something to ice but if applied correctly to a large enough surface and if that surface was high in the air, it could create snow.

The roof of the Great Hall would certainly be a large enough surface and it was most certainly high in the air. With a quick flip of his wand, Harry charmed his glasses so that he could see through the snow. His timing was excellent as he saw two quick Stunner flying through the snow. The first was completely off the mark but the second would have struck true if he hadn't deflected it.

Next, Harry twisted his wand to his left and his right, mimicking the swing of a tennis racket. With each twist, a small bird flew from the end of his wand. Each bird started small at first before growing to a massive size. A third twist in Luna's direction caused the two birds to start dive bombing his opponent. Through the snow and hail, Harry could see Luna fighting the two birds, doing her best to keep them away from her.

Harry was about to step forward and finish the duel when Luna suddenly shouted over the whipping wind and snow.

" _Finite Incantatem!"_

Harry had certainly taught her to think on her feet. The idea of simply ending a spell was not something that came to mind for most people. They would fight and fight and fight until they couldn't any longer when the simplest thing would be to simply cancel the spell. While the spells that Harry had used had been clever and well executed, neither were particularly powerful and both could be ended with a single wave of a wand, which is exactly what Luna did.

As the wind and snow started to disperse, Luna, soaking wet and chilled to the bone, stepped forward, clearly quite enraged by Harry's tactics.

For the first time in this Tournament, Luna was finally playing into someone else's hands. Harry had known that if he tried to duel her straight-up from the beginning, the sheer number of weird possibilities would have forced Harry to overthink. To avoid that, Harry had decided that he would do his best to throw her off first, to make her upset. If he could do that, she might decide to fight like she had against Ethan. She would be violent and ruthless, no doubt, but she would be direct and far easier to counter.

As she stepped forward, nearly two dozen spells came flying from her wand, each quicker than the other. With a good combination of Shields and deflections, Harry was able to dodge most of them. Unfortunately, one Banishing spell made it through, throwing Harry into the air. Gripping his wand tightly, Harry aimed at the floor and threw a second Banishing charm at it, throwing Harry back onto the platform.

While he didn't land gracefully (or on his feet), he was still on the platform and therefore, still in the match. Unfortunately, landing on his back, with his head facing Luna, meant that he couldn't see her. Scrambling to his feet, he just barely managed to avoid two Stunners aimed for his head.

Harry composed himself and then stepped forward, throwing two Banishings spells, both of which hit Luna's Shield Charms. Still, the force of the spells almost knocked Luna off her feet, which certainly would have ended the duel there. But they didn't and the duel pressed on, each of them firing and defending in turn.

After nearly a minute of exchange, Luna changed up her tactics.

" _Serpensortia! Serpensortia! Serpensortia!"_

Immediately, three snakes hit the platform just a few feet away from Harry. One quick look at Luna and he knew that she had intentionally done this. She knew that his Parseltongue abilities were gone. How exactly she knew that was unclear but she knew it, nonetheless.

Unfortunately for Luna, Harry wasn't in his second year anymore. While each of these snakes were four times longer than the one that Malfoy had conjured that year, Harry was still an incredibly talented wizard with a wand. All it took was a simple Banishing spell and all three of those snakes flew towards Luna like they were each riding their own personal Firebolt.

Two of the snakes missed her, flying over her head. The third, however, hit her directly in the head, causing her to tumble onto her side. Luna, in a move that impressed Harry greatly, mirrored Harry's earlier move. Only this time, she used the Banishing charm to slide roughly five meters along the platform, further away from the snake, which she was able to dissolve quickly.

Harry and Luna, each of them starting to tire, marched towards each other. This time, neither bothered to defend. Instead, they simply attempted to throw spells with as much power as they could. Each time, the spells hit and exploded in mid-air, sending shockwaves through the Great Hall. The final blast, which threw Harry and Luna to opposite ends of the platform, also managed shattered the glass in two of the windows at the far end of the Great Hall.

For a moment, the room was still as Harry and Luna both struggled to their feet. Harry had felt tired after using the Firestorm but that had been like the feeling of not having slept or ate in an entire day. While the feeling wasn't great, you felt like a nap and a sandwich could cure your ills.

Harry felt like he had gotten to a boxing ring with Grawp at the moment. The sheer amount of magic that Harry had been using was starting to get to him, not to mention the fact that twice now, he had been throwing over a dozen meters in the air only to land on a hard surface.

Needless to say, when this was all over, Harry was going to need a warm bath.

Looking to the other end of the platform, Harry saw that Luna didn't look any better. A cut had opened up over her right eye and she had scraped the hell out of her arm. Harry was certain that he looked rough and was thankful that no one had a mirror.

Harry knew that the longer he let this duel go on, the more likely that one of them was going to get hurt. He also knew that Luna had some tricks up her sleeve. The more time he gave her to use them, the more likely he was to lose. Considering how he was feeling, Harry really didn't want to lose.

So, he stepped forward, his wand at this side. His strategy before had been to hit Luna with everything he had: spells with power but lacking in subtlety and grace. Luna had been more than up for that challenge, hitting Harry with everything he had thrown at her and then some in some instances.

The other way hadn't worked. So, instead of trying to use the fact that Harry was simply more powerful to beat her, Harry went the other way: he used some finesse. Starting slowly, Harry fired a series of weak Stunners in Luna's direction. One after the other, they came towards her and one after the other, she blocked them. Unfortunately for Luna, Harry timed them perfectly, leaving her just enough room to block them before another would hit her. These Stunners lacked power (if they hit her, she probably wouldn't have even been knocked off her feet) but they were all perfectly accurate.

Her first block would be high and to her left. The next: low and right. Then, high and right followed by low and left.

High and right.

High and left.

High and right.

Low and right.

High and left.

One after the other after the other until Harry lost count of the number of spells he had thrown. Never two of them in the same place but all of them perfectly on the mark. Harry started slow but slowly, almost imperceptibly, he picked up speed. With every spell, he got faster and faster until those in the crowd watching could barely see his wand moving.

On the other end of the platform, Luna did everything she could to stem the tide. She started strafing left and right, throwing counters where she could. But those counters never hit their mark, sailing wide or high as Harry continued to press on.

For those present that had never believed that Harry Potter was as talented as everyone believed, it was in this moment that he proved all of those people wrong. He had always been gifted but he had admittedly been lazy. He hadn't worked as hard as he could have. Now, he spent hours a day studying and fine tuning his technique. Now, each Stunner hit the precise spot that Harry directed it, keeping Luna from ever organizing a defense.

There were probably less than a dozen wizards alive that could have withstood the onslaught of attacks that Harry threw and still only twice that number that survived as long as Luna Lovegood. After nearly two minutes of defending herself, Luna was exhausted. Taking advantage of that, Harry stopped playing around. Instead of smaller, weaker Stunners, Harry now launched massive spells that crackled with energy as they flew down the length of the platform, literally exploding with magic against her shields. Almost only a few seconds of being hit with those massive spells, her Shields finally broke, her wand falling to the floor. Seeing his advantage, Harry struck, once again returning to the smaller, quicker Stunners that had so successfully wore her down.

The first Stunner hit her in the left knee, causing her to collapse to the ground.

The second Stunner hit her in the shoulder, throwing her back onto the platform.

Finally, Harry used a Summoning Charm, calling Luna's wand into his hand.

The moment he caught the wand, Harry collapsed to his knees in exhaustion as the sound of the crowd suddenly exploded. When people had been asked years later why they had cheered for Harry, despite the fact that everyone had been rooting for Luna, almost all of the answers sounded something like this:

"Everyone loves the underdog. But when you can say that you saw the best duelist of your age duel and win, that's a special thing."

Dragging himself along the platform as Harry felt the crowd start to swarm around him, Harry just managed to make it to Luna, taking her by the hand, before both of them were lifted into the air by a swarm of supporters. Both Harry and Luna's names were cheered equally. For quite awhile, Hogwarts hadn't had much to celebrate. Now, they had a new Dueling Champion and his first runner-up, a woman more than capable of taking it from him, should she want to.

In fact, the only thought running through Harry's head as the two of them were dragged out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall where the Gryffindors had gathered to celebrate was that he was amazed by just how talented Luna was. For years, Hermione and Ginny had been the two that had always been neck and neck for the title of most talented witch at Hogwarts.

After seeing Daphne Greengrass duel, he had then thought it possible that she was a contender. But after having dueled Luna, there was another person vying for that same title. Four women who would all likely go on to do astonishing things, given the talents they had developed over the years.

Harry was just thankful that he had survived them and even more thankful that they were his friends.


	24. Twenty-Four

**A/N: I've been getting some good writing time recently, which means two chapters in one week! Enjoy! Review!**

* * *

With almost everyone being finished with classes for the term, Harry enjoyed a rather relaxing Friday morning with his friends. However, even through the games of Exploding Snap and an adventure to the kitchens where the house elves provided them with food that they could cook over the fire in the fireplace in Harry and Hermione's dorm, there was still an excitement that could almost be felt for the Yule Ball that evening. Some of the girls in Gryffindor House had reportedly started getting ready for the Ball as early as ten in the morning, each spending hours working on their hair and makeup to ensure that it was perfect.

It was in these moments that Harry truly wondered what magic was for.

But as the day slowly drifted into night, everyone left Harry and Hermione to go get ready. Rather than go with a standard set of dress robes, Harry had gone for something a bit more extravagant. It was a typical suit, three buttons down the center, but it wasn't black or white like a normal jacket. This jacket was a bright red, the color of Gryffindor House, with a gold lapel. It was a ridiculous jacket but one that Harry had been unable to keep himself from buying when he had snuck out Diagon Alley a few weeks earlier. The jacket paired with black pants and a set of red and black shoes.

When Harry had informed Parvati what he intended to wear, she had first thought Harry was joking. When he told her that he was dead serious, Harry had never seen a bigger smile on his classmate's face. Almost immediately, she had raced back up to her dorm, saying that she "needed to make some adjustments."

Harry was standing in the Entrance Hall, just like he had four years earlier, waiting for Parvati when he got the chance to see what exactly those "adjustments" had been. Harry immediately noticed Parvati. In fact, Harry strongly doubted that there would be a single person in the room who didn't notice her. Parvati's dress was red, like Harry's, but seemed to be changing shades by the second. The dress hugged every single curve tightly all the way down to her knees where it stopped suddenly. The straps clung to the very edge of her shoulder, dangerously close to falling off.

Harry wondered if keeping those straps up was the true use of magic.

But the most noticeable piece of the dress was the back. As she walked by Harry and gave him a spin, Harry noticed a symbol on the back. It was a phoenix with its wings stretched from shoulder blade to shoulder blade. The area where the phoenix rest was gold with the red slowly emanating away from the tips of the phoenix's wings.

The red was the fire of the phoenix, Harry understood. It's why the dress appeared to be changing between shades of red. She had enchanted the dress so that it looked like it was on fire, the colors changing between dark red, gold and blue to reflect the changes in any particular moment of a fire.

It was a wonderfully inventive piece of magic and Harry couldn't help but stare at Parvati as she spun in front of him, clearly proud of her handiwork. Finally, she stepped up to Harry and placed a hand on his jaw.

"Didn't you know it's rude to stare?"

"If you didn't want me to stare, you shouldn't have worn that dress." Harry replied, his mouth never quite completely closing as he spoke. "Did you make this?"

"The dress, no. But I did do all of the enchantments on it. I created the phoenix and then performed a series of charms, each of them timed up differently, so that different colors would shine through a different points. It took me nearly three weeks, working on it every night, to get it right."

"It was worth the work. You look amazing."

"Well, thanks." Parvati said before leaning up and kissing Harry gently on the lips. When she broke away, she saw the confused look on Harry's face. "I was a silly girl in fourth year."

"We were all a little silly fourth year. That still doesn't explain why you kissed me."

"Because I wanted to." Parvati reasoned. "I had hoped that when we went to the Yule Ball together, that I would discover just how amazing you were and that we would fall madly in love and live happily ever after."

"The perfect fairy tale, huh?"

"Like I said, I was a silly fourteen year old." Parvati chuckled. "But I wanted to live out at least one part of that fantasy, so I kissed you. Don't read too much into it. At heart, I still want to be a silly girl."

"Then be one." Harry said as he offered her his arm.

"Seems a bit disrespectful, given all that's happened."

"Maybe. But I like to think that we fought and sacrificed so that we could do what we want with our lives without fear hanging over our heads."

"So you're saying that I should go be a silly girl again?"

"I'm not sure I would say that." Harry said with a sly smile. "But I am saying that you should do what makes you happy. You have to know that's what Lavender would have wanted."

"Lavender would have wanted to be here. She would have wanted to actually be old enough to appreciate something like this."

"You didn't appreciate it before?"

"Well, my date kind of sucked." Parvati said, returning Harry's sly grin. "Plus, I was fourteen years old. Barely old enough to even start thinking of boys. Now, I can say that I went on a date with The Man Who Lived."

"Who knows? If this goes well, you might get two."

"Who says that I would want two?" Parvati replied, her face completely deadpan. But only moments later, she broke and a smile as wide as Hagrid appeared on her face. "Maybe. I do have to say that this date has already been more fun than the last one."

"Really? Why?"

"Because you're actually talking to me. You were so damned concerned with Cho Chang and Hermione and Ron the last time, you completely ignored the fact that I existed."

"Yeah." Harry said, his stomach sinking a bit. "I know. Sorry about that."

"Don't tell me you're sorry. Make it up to me tonight."

"Yes, ma'am."

Harry did make it up to her. Unlike their previous date at the Yule Ball, Harry was the perfect gentleman. He pulled out her chair, got her drinks, took her dancing until her feet were sore. Harry was pleased to see that Hermione, who had intentionally come without a date, had found someone to spend her time with, especially since it meant that Harry wasn't the only one repeating his Yule Ball date. When Harry and Parvati finally sat down, he sat with a smile as he watched Hermione and Viktor dance. Neither of them were speaking at the moment but the smiles on both of their faces suggested that they were both having a wonderful time, something that Harry couldn't help but be happy for.

"So what's the deal with you and Chang?" Parvati said as she sipped the champagne in her glass.

"There is no deal."

"I thought the two of you were dating. It certainly looked like the two of you were dating at your birthday party."

"We were dating." Harry said. "Now, we are not."

"I'm sorry. Did she break up with you?"

"It was a relatively mutual thing, to be honest." Harry replied before shifting towards Parvati, turning on an excessive (and fake) level of charm. "Why so interested?"

"Knock it off." Parvati said, rolling her eyes. "Just trying to get to know you a bit better."

"Well, why don't we go find a quiet spot?"

"You're an idiot." Parvati said while slapping him in the arm. "I can't believe you defeated Lord Voldemort."

"You and me both." Harry admitted. "It still feels like I'm living in a dream sometimes."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know." Harry said, not wanting to weigh down what had been a good night with talk of Voldemort.

"Harry, we're friends. You can talk to me. It's not like I don't have things that bother me."

"I know." Harry said. "I just never thought that I would get here. I always assumed that if the war had ended and we had somehow won, that I would be dead."

"Yet here you are."

"Yeah." Harry said. "So it feels a bit like a dream or like I'm living someone else's life."

"I know what you mean. Well, not really but sort of."

"How so?"

"Being back here." Parvati said. "For a year, this place was hell. Dumbledore was gone, Death Eaters were in charge and there was no escape. Now, we're sitting here, drinking champagne and dancing the night away at the Yule Ball. I should be happy, I should be thankful but-"

"But you would rather be back in hell with Lavender alive than here without her."

"Yes." Parvati said, looking at Harry with a stunned expression. "How did you know that's what I was going to say?"

"Because I live that way every single day." Harry admitted. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish that I could go back to when my parents were alive or Sirius or Dumbledore or a dozen other people."

"How do you live with that?"

"I...well, I don't." Harry whispered. "I don't think about it that way anyway. I think about what all those people would want. I know that each and every one of them, given the choice between being alive with Voldemort still around or dead with Riddle gone as well, they would choose the second one. So, I do my best to respect their wishes and to honor their memory."

"That seems like a heavy burden to bear."

"It has been." Harry said, his mind racing through all the terrible things in his past. "But it's not my burden anymore, although I never carried it alone in the first place. There were always people helping me."

"Some of us wish that we had done more to help."

"You did what you could given the position you were in." Harry said. "You can't kick yourself for opportunities that were never presented to you."

"Sure you can." Parvati replied darkly, causing Harry to wonder just what was going through Parvati's mind. He had become far closer to Parvati than he had in their previous time at school. Part of that was likely due to the fact that she was one of the few people in the school that he still knew while another factor was likely due to her increased maturity.

Harry just wished that maturity hadn't been created by the death of her best friend.

Looking around the room, Harry wasn't surprised to see that Minerva had gone to extreme lengths to decorate the Great Hall for the Ball. Dozens of snow covered trees lined the walls of the Hall, each of them covered in ornaments and popcorn balls. For one night only, the ceiling had been enchanted once more, using a charm that simulated a snowing night, despite the fact that it was a relatively mild evening outside that night.

He noticed that most of the school seemed to have turned out. While some of the younger students had elected to stay in their Common Rooms tonight, almost every older student was there, including every sixth and seventh year student. They had been the ones that had seen most of the carnage involved in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry imagined that, much like himself, his peers felt as if the Ball was a good way to close out the year, a celebration of the fact that, despite the efforts of Lord Voldemort and his gang of cronies, they remained.

Despite everything that had happened, they remained.

Harry watching his classmates (including an incredibly adorable Demelza Robins and Dennis Creevey) when he heard a voice from just over his shoulder.

"Parvati, would you mind if I take your date for a moment?"

Harry turned around to see a barely recognizable Ginny Weasley, her hair pulled up tight into a bun. She wore a strapless black dress that shimmered when she moved. But the best feature was that, just like Parvati's, she had charmed her dress.

But her dress didn't show a flying phoenix. No, her dress showed a lightning bolt that flashed over the black sky of her dress. The meaning of the dress was not lost as he finally looked up and met Ginny's eyes. She was smiling that same dangerous smile that had caused the beast in Harry's chest to come to life during his sixth year. It was all at once mysterious and yet totally obvious in its intentions.

Parvati turned and looked at Ginny and her mouth hung open as she stared at the redhead.

"Damn, Ginny." Parvati said, her mouth never completely closing as she spoke. "You look amazing."

"So do you!" Ginny said earnestly.

"Well, thank you." Parvati said before turning to Harry. "You better take that dance. If you don't, I will."

Harry turned back from Parvati to Ginny, who had outstretched her hand towards Harry. Unable to contain the smile that flashed on his face, he took her head and followed her as she dragged them to the center of the dance floor. Harry, far more confident on his feet than the last dance, spun Ginny under his arm before placing his left hand on the small of her back, pulling her so close that their noses grazed against each other.

In the past, Harry would have pulled away, frightened that he might be encroaching on her space. But not this time. Now, he stayed close, challenging Ginny to either break away or match his gaze. As expected, Ginny, who was completely incapable of shying away from any sort of competition, matched him step for step as they rocked back and forth to the sound of the music.

"So who did you come with?" Harry asked.

"Would you kill me if I said Zacharias Smith?" Ginny asked, the warmth of her breath causing Harry's glasses to fog up.

"I wouldn't but I think you would kill him."

"You're probably right." Ginny chuckled. "No, I came with Trevor Birch, one of the Ravenclaw Prefects."

"He's not jealous that I'm dancing with you, is he?"

"Oh, I'm certain he is." Ginny said as she looked off to the edge of the dance floor where Trevor was standing. He was staring through the crowd, his eyes fixed on them. "To be honest, Trevor isn't a bad guy but I think he believed that we were going to the Ministry to get married once the Ball was over."

"Not your type?"

"He's a bit like wet bread." Ginny replied, which forced Harry to turn away so that he wouldn't snort in Ginny's face.

"Exciting then, right?"

"He just couldn't handle me or my family. One day at The Burrow and he would never want to see me again."

"That's his loss then."

Ginny fell silent at that. Her eyes didn't wander or dart about the room. Much like Trevor's eyes, they remained fixed on their target. Harry could feel some sort of magnetic pull between the two of them, as if there were something dragging them closer together.

"What is this, Harry?" Ginny finally whispered.

"I don't know." Harry admitted. "I like your dress."

"You noticed that, did you?"

"It was kind of obvious."

"Well, you haven't always noticed that kind of thing in the past." Ginny replied, taunting Harry with the truth of his obliviousness.

"It's a lightning bolt, Gin. I have a lightning bolt scar. You were clearly trying to get my attention."

Suddenly, Ginny pulled herself even closer to Harry so that her stomach pressed flat against Harry's. In that moment, he was thankful that despite the late hour of the evening, the dance floor was still relatively crowded.

"Did it work?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Harry said breathlessly, doing his best to keep his mind away from where it desperately wanted to go. In the past, any daydreams he may have had about Ginny could have easily been cast away as part of his imagination. That was no longer the case now. Now, he could envision every single part of her body, that image permanently burned into his mind, which made it almost impossible for him to keep his mind (and other body parts) from engaging in a manner that would not be acceptable in public.

"That you are." Ginny replied, just as the song they were dancing to finished up. Neither of them made an attempt to let go of the other as another song started up. Ginny stared up at Harry, her eyes warm and reflecting the snow sky above her as she looked at him.

"What about Neville?" Harry asked, the knowledge that Ginny had a boyfriend suddenly clawing into his mind.

"Neville and I are on a bit of a break."

"Oh." Harry said dumbly, not exactly sure what he was supposed to say to that. So, he said nothing. At some point in the song, Ginny placed her head on Harry's shoulder, allowing Harry to hold her close.

This was a new development. Well, not exactly new, Harry thought to himself, but certainly different. Ever since their discussion last May, neither of them had showed any sign that they were interested in getting back together. They had remained friends, however. In fact, Ginny had become almost as close to him as Hermione, largely due to the number of classes they shared. If he wasn't working in his own Common Area, he could likely be found studying in the Gryffindor Common Room with Ginny.

But something had changed. Ginny had made a choice tonight. The dress that she had worn had clearly been a sign, a signal that it was ready for him and not simply because she looked amazing in it (which she did). He had spent months focusing on half a dozen other things but the moment she had looked at him with that devious smile, Harry knew that he was in trouble. It had been that look, that same mischievous grin, that had lead to Harry developing feelings for her in the first place.

There was some kind of rebelliousness in that smile, something that made Harry want to go break curfew. Something that, to be honest, made Harry want to grab Ginny and find the nearest broom closet.

What would the future hold for the two of them? Harry couldn't be certain. He knew that he was no longer against the idea of a relationship, that much was true based on his time with Cho. But was he ready to try things against with Ginny? Was she?

And what the hell was this game that she was playing?

They danced together in silence for another few minutes until the song ended, at which point, Harry reminded Ginny that they both had dates they should likely return to. Ginny made it a point to show Harry just how sad that she would have to back to Trevor.

Honestly, Harry understood the feeling. As they left the dance floor, Harry gave Ginny's hand a squeeze before letting go, allowing her to go back to Trevor and Harry to go back to Parvati. The moment that Harry took his seat, Parvati spoke up.

"Why didn't the two of you just go find a closet somewhere?"

"What?" Harry asked in a panic.

"Harry, we're not children anymore." Parvati said as she rolled her eyes at him. "And I'm not blind either. You were looking at her like you were imaging a dozen different ways that you could take off that dress."

While Harry may not have been quite so direct in how he had worded it, he knew that she wasn't wrong. When Harry went to say as much, Parvati lifted a hand.

"You don't have to say a word." she said gently. "Listen, I wasn't expecting you to marry me or anything. We're not dating. At best, maybe we would have had a good time and I could have dragged you into an empty classroom."

"Still doesn't sound like a bad idea." Harry said, trying his best to return to the banter they had developed earlier in the evening, something which Parvati clearly saw through.

"Harry, you love her. There's no sense in denying it." Parvati said.

Harry breathed deeply through his nose. "Right."

At just that moment, the wizard who had been directing the string quartet in the corner announced that they would be performing just one more song for the evening. Harry was about to ask Parvati if she wanted to dance some more when he noticed something odd. The hour was late and most of the professors, those who had not volunteered to chaperone the Ball, had already left. Some had returned to their offices, others, those with families, likely had already returned home for the weekend. But as Harry stood to ask Parvati to dance once more, he noticed six Professors, led by Professor Calhoun, all of whom had already left the dance, march back into the room and approach Minerva, where they whispered something in her ear.

Harry watched Minerva's face. At first, she seemed confused as if what Professor Calhoun was telling her didn't make any sense. But the longer Calhoun spoke, the more her face twisted in horror. She finally turned to Calhoun, asking him a couple of questions that Harry couldn't quite make out and then turned, her eyes immediately locking on Harry. With the force of a much younger woman, she barged through the sparse crowd towards him, a look of fear that Harry hadn't seen on her face in months.

Not since May.

"Headmistress?" Harry said as Minerva approached.

"Potter, I need you and Granger to get all of the students to their dormitories."

"What's happened?"

"The Death Eaters have launched an assault on Hogsmeade."

Harry's mind instantly started spinning as he heard the words coming out of Minerva's mouth. The Death Eaters were here? For months, ever since Dolohov's breakout, they had been silent. No one had heard anything from them and suddenly, they were on their doorstep.

"Professor-"

"Get the students to their dorms, Potter." Minerva repeated. "Once that is done, follow the _path_ to the Shrieking Shack. A group of Auror candidates have been called from the Ministry to assist those currently in Hogsmeade. You will be added to their ranks and join the counter-attack from there."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I am going with the Professors to help the Aurors with the defense of the school. You and Granger are in charge until we return."

"Yes, ma'am."

With that, Minerva turned and marched from the room with every teacher in the school following her. That was something the other students noticed. At first, the students were excited because there was no one there to supervise them. But, in a world still so close to Voldemort's reign of terror, they all realized that something must be wrong if all the teachers were leaving.

Seeing the opportunity, Harry stood on the Head Table and shot sparks high in the air before throwing a weak Exploding Curse into the air, causing Harry's wand to crack like a bullwhip.

"Listen up!" Harry shouted as the room went quiet. With another wave of his wand towards his throat, Harry magically amplified his voice. "I need all Prefects to begin the process of escorting all students back to their Common Rooms. You have ten minutes. Anyone found in the hallways after that will be given detention for the entirety of the next term. Prefects, speak to me before you leave the Great Hall."

Immediately, people started moving with a group of Prefects surrounding Harry.

"The Death Eaters are attacking Hogsmeade. Get your students into your Common Room. When you get there, take a head count and ensure that no one is missing. Send the results of your head count to Hermione."

"Why me?" Hermione asked as she approached the huddle.

"Because I've been instructed to join a secondary wave of attackers." Harry replied. When it looked like other Prefects were about to ask to join, Harry spoke up quickly. "You have your orders. Anyone who does not follow them to the letter will be removed as a Prefect. Hermione will go over an evacuation plan with you should we need it. Any questions?"

He could see no questions but he could see that most of them were scared.

"Take a deep breath." Harry whispered. "The younger students will be scared. They will be looking to you. I have faith that you can handle this. Stay calm and we'll all get through this."

With a more confident nod, each Prefect sprinted from their spot, gathering their students. Within only a few moments, the Great Hall was empty with the exception of Harry, Parvati and Hermione.

"You're going to the battle?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed. "It's what Minerva ordered me to do."

"She ordered me to stay here?" Hermione asked.

"Technically, she didn't order you to do anything. But she did say that the two of us were in charge until the staff returned. She also ordered me to join the battle."

"That means I need to stay here." Hermione replied. It was clear that she was not particularly happy with this result but she nodded anyway. "I'll go to Minerva's office. If anyone comes to the castle, they'll start there."

"Good. Make sure to check in with the Prefects." Harry said as he turned to leave. "If even one student is missing, we need to know."

"Got it." Hermione said as she marched the opposite direction towards the Headmistress's Office. Harry turned and made to march towards Hogsmeade. It was only then that Harry realized that Parvati was still there.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going with you."

"What?" Harry responded. "No, you're not. I need you to go to Gryffindor Tower."

"Harry, I didn't do anything to help you other than survive through the Battle of Hogwarts. Now that I'm given my chance, I'm not going to walk away from it."

"Parvati, I need you here." Harry countered. "I trained you. I know what you are capable of and don't think for a minute that I don't value that. It's why I need you to stay. If something happens and the castle falls, who is going to be there to protect the first years?"

"Ginny." Parvati replied defiantly.

"Who else?" Harry insisted. "Who else? No one. No one that I trust and no one that I trained. Now, I don't know how many people are out there. I don't know if we're going to lose the castle or just part of Hogsmeade. I don't _know_ anything right now, Parvati. But I know that we need to be prepared for anything. If we have to evacuate the castle, I need you up there to protect those people that can't protect themselves. Do you understand me?"

Parvati stared at Harry for a moment before nodding her head. "Yes, I understand."

"Good. Now, go."

Parvati turned to walk away before turning back to Harry and throwing her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"Be safe."

"I'll do my best." Harry whispered, holding onto Parvati tightly. "You know what to do. Now, go help keep the younger students safe."

"With my life." Parvati said as she let go of Harry.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that." Harry said before he turned, sprinting down the hallway towards the front gate of the school. Harry tore the doors open before sprinting towards the Walloping Willow. A quick flick of his wand froze the tree, allowing Harry to dive into the crevice under the tree. Just like the last time he had been in this tunnel, it was remarkably small, a fact that still surprised him considering it had been more than enough space the first time that he had used the secret passage.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Harry's back was cramping but he managed to make it through to the Shrieking Shack where a team of Auror candidates waited, including three faces that Harry recognized immediately.

"Harry?"

Ron looked through the crowd to see Harry approach. Harry tore through the crowd, a giant smile on his face despite the situation. As he reached Ron, Neville and Ernie, he realized just how much more defined all three of them looked. While none of them had ever been fat, they appeared to have cut out any excess parts that had existed before, replaced instead by lean muscle. Scars that Harry couldn't remember any of them having lined their face and arms. It was clear that the Auror Academy had not been an easy place.

Harry hugged each of the three men, excited to see his old friends again.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ron asked.

"He's the ringer."

Harry looked up to see a man, much older than everyone else in the room, wearing official Auror robes. His dark skin contrasted with the grey in his beard and the moon in the sky, making him look a bit like a ghost.

"What do you mean, Williamson?"

"The Minister of Magic ordered us to wait for Potter to join us." the Auror known as Williamson said. "He will be assisting us. I assume that I will get no problems from you, Potter."

"No, sir. Just glad to help."

"Good." Williamson replied, although Harry could tell that he was still skeptical. "Listen up, everyone: we're here to provide support. You are not yet official Aurors and that means that anyone who disobeys an order here tonight will be removed from the program. Is that clear?"

"Sir, yes, sir." came the unified cry of every person in the room not named Harry.

"Good. We're going to be charging down the hill. The Death Eaters number almost fifty. We believe most of them to be foreign mercenaries but cannot yet confirm that. Numerous high value targets, including Antonin Dolohov himself, have been sighted. Once we charge down the hill, we will pause at Main Street and create a firm line, pressing the Death Eaters further away from the center of the town. Any questions?"

No one bothered to raise their hand and no one spoke. It seemed as if they were all ready to go.

"Move out."

Immediately, the entire force moved as one, flooding out the front door and assuming a straightlne formation across the front of the shack. Harry took up a spot towards the middle of the line with Ron on one side and Neville and Ernie on the other.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Ernie asked.

"Too many." Harry replied.

Looking down at the hill, Harry could see the lights of the battle raging below. Fires had been lit with several buildings almost entirely covered in flames, smoking billowing high into the sky. Voices could be heard crying over the crashes and bangs of spells exploding.

It was truly a warzone but for the first time, Harry didn't feel afraid. He had spent the last five months training with his wand, becoming one of the most dangerous people he knew with a wand in his hand. If Ron, Neville and Ernie had learned as hard as they had been worked, the four of them alone would have been dangerous, nevermind the fact that they were surrounded by two dozen other Auror candidates.

Suddenly, the sign was given and twenty-five well trained witches and wizards sprinted forward, joining the battle already in progress. This was the first time that Harry had been involved in a battle that didn't involve children and the largest difference that stuck out was how little sound there actually was. While the sounds of spells hitting walls was prevalent, no one spoke, opting to fire completely silently.

The cavalry joined the fray, immediately turning the tide against the Death Eaters who all wore their traditional black robe and mask.

Harry and Ron lead half the group to the center of town where the battle had hit its strongest. On one side was a line of Hogwarts professors and Aurors, throwing spell after spell in a haphazard formation, causing occasional moments where the line would break, forcing people to duck behind broken walls and removed doors.

On the other side was a coordinated wall of Death Eaters, repeatedly firing simultaneously at their opponents. It was immediately clear in Harry's mind where the Death Eaters had been in that moment.

They had been training.

It was evident in their strategies and coordination that Dolohov and his newly formed Death Eaters hadn't simply disappeared. While Dolohov may have craved power and control, it was clear that he was already a better strategist than Voldemort. Voldemort was powerful but never understood how to translate that into those that followed him, likely due to the fact that he secretly fear that someone would gain power and try and take over.

Dolohov had clearly empowered his followers, training them to become an elite fighting force. Even though they were greatly outnumbered, the battle was already starting to swing in favor of the Death Eaters when the squad of trainees showed up. Harry's line formed directly behind the misshapen formation of Aurors and professors in front of them, lobbing spells over the top of the line in front of them. Once that group of nearly thirty joined the group of similar size, they were able to take advantage of their noticeable numbers advantage, pushing the Death Eaters away from the center of town.

Unfortunately, the Auror candidates had been given orders not to leave the center of town where they had begun their engagement. This meant that as their allies stretched further and further away from them, they lacked supported. Harry watched as Minerva lead her group forward, attempting to push the Death Eaters out of town entirely only to eventually be pushed back to their original location in the center of town.

Harry looked around and saw that no one was going to challenge Williamson or the orders given to them by the Ministry.

So, of course, it fell to Harry.

"Are we seriously going to sit here?" Harry said when the front line again got too far away for them to support.

"Our orders were to support the line." Williamson said, clearly not appreciating Harry's dissent.

"Yes and look at the line." Harry said, pointing down the main street as two more Aurors fell from green flashes thrown by the Death Eaters. "If we sit here, that line of people will eventually disappear."

"I was given orders." Williamson replied stubbornly. "I know that you don't know what it means to follow orders but a good Auror follows them."

"And a great one knows when their orders are out of date." Harry snapped back. "I'm going."

"You can't go."

"I'm not an Auror, remember?" Harry replied. "If I die, then you can taunt my grave."

With that, Harry sprinted a block away from Main Street before taking off as fast as he could down a parallel street. While he did that, he watched the standoff from in between houses and other structures that he couldn't identify. Harry had never been to this section of town before. Thankfully, all of the streets seemed to work on a perpendicular grid which made it very easy for Harry to run past the end of the battle and then cut back behind the Death Eaters.

As Harry stepped out into the street, he summoned three doors that had been blown off their hinges and placed them upright in the middle of the street with a Sticking Charm. Then, he Transfigured the doors from wood to metal, creating three large iron dividers between him and the Death Eaters.

Then, Harry took a deep breath, his back leaning up against the cold, metal door, before sticking his wand out from behind the shield and firing.

" _Confringo!"_

Harry aimed for a spot on the ground in the middle of the block of Death Eaters. The curse hit the ground and caused a massive explosion, which tossed several Death Eaters into the air. Some of them hit the ground and returned to their feet. Others hit the ground and never moved again.

And others, well, there was nothing left of them to hit the ground. Later, Harry would realize what he had done. But for now, Harry stood behind the shield as he heard countless spells ricochet off them. Thankfully, at the same time, he hurt a number of Death Eaters cry out so that when Harry braved another look, he saw that the number of Death Eaters still standing was dwindling quickly.

Unfortunately, when Harry had turned back around to look at the battle, he hadn't noticed that someone had mimicked his maneuver. Turning back around, Harry saw the end of a wand in his face. Looking up the wand, Harry saw the face of a Death Eater.

But not just any Death Eater. It was Antonin Dolohov himself. He wore no mask. His identity as the leader of the Death Eaters was well known so Harry supposed that it didn't make much sense to wear a mask. He had several scars that Harry had not remembered from the last time they had fought in London. Now, he stood with a vicious sneer as he held Harry at wandpoint.

"Enough!" Dolohov shouted, causing both sides to stop firing and turn towards Harry and Dolohov. Dolohov grabbed Harry by the collar and threw him out from behind the shield, his head hitting the ground hard, forcing Harry to drop his wand. With a single flip of his wand, Dolohov levitated Harry so that he floated just above everyone's heads, pushing him to a spot in the middle of the battle.

Harry, his head still ringing and completely disoriented because he was upside down, could do nothing besides float and wait for death.

"I have your hero." Dolohov said, his voice even. "Give me the castle and I will let him go."

"Don't you dare." Harry growled in the direction of someone he thought looked like Minerva McGonagall.

"Ever the hero, isn't he?" Dolohov said as he circled Harry like a panther observing its prey. "I have no use for heroes."

"We will never give you the castle."

That was definitely the voice of Minerva McGonagall and it was definitely not the person that Harry had spoken to moments earlier. Still, Harry couldn't focus too much on that. Instead, he focused on his fingers. Earlier that year, Harry had done a study on wandless magic. It was certainly possible. There were places all over the world that utilized wandless magic as their primary source of control. But in Britain, wands were the primary method of control. Eventually, people would lose the ability to cast without a wand to channel their power.

But, Harry had studied the techniques required and believed that he could do it. Harry's wand lay just a few feet behind him. If there was any chance that Harry could summon something, the wand that he had bonded with since he was eleven was his best chance.

"You can give me the castle, McGonagall, or I will take it." Dolohov taunted. "You've seen my forces. You know what they are capable of. This is only a part of my new Death Eaters. Refuse me and I will bring everyone the next time. Then, you'll either give me the castle or die as I bring it down."

"Good luck." Harry muttered, which immediately caused some of the Aurors and all of the staff to laugh at Dolohov. Certainly, their laughter was caused by nerves but it did exactly what Harry wanted it to do.

It distracted Dolohov.

"Good luck?" Dolohov replied, his upside-down face only inches away from Harry's. "Mr. Potter, I didn't know that you lacked respect."

"Ask my professors." Harry shot back. "Particularly Umbridge. She had some really mean things to say about me."

"Well, pardon me if I don't concern myself with your reputation in the classroom."

"You should."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because it's a good reputation." Harry countered as he felt his fingers tingle ever so slightly. "One of the best to ever go to Hogwarts."

"Really? Besides getting lucky enough to beat the Dark Lord, what can you do?"

"Well, I can do this." Harry replied as his wand shot from its spot on the ground and into Harry's wand. With a quick flip of his wand, Harry cancelled the spell that kept him floating in the air, causing him to collapse onto the ground, his back hitting the dirt road hard.

Pain shot through Harry's body but he did not allow that to stop him. Instead, he got to his feet where he quickly deflected three Killing Curses from Dolohov.

"You really believe you are something, don't you, Potter?"

"That's what they say."

"You should join me."

"I think I would rather not." Harry replied. "Like it hot, scum?"

"What?"

"Nevermind." Harry said as he stuck his wand straight up in the air, then began swinging it around, slowly at first and then faster and faster. When some of the professors saw what Harry was doing, they immediately jumped to surround Harry, protecting him while he progressed through the stages of the attack.

Just a couple of seconds later, the first thin wall of fire appeared, circling just on the outside of the group of professors gathered around him. Moment by moments, the fire grew in size. In less than a minute, the flames had gone from non-existent to nearly two meters thick, the same size that it had been a couple of days earlier in class. Just like then, the flames seemed to reach out, setting numerous Death Eaters ablaze as they tried to curse Harry. Unfortunately, the fire was strong enough to absorb all but the more powerful spells, which were then easily deflected by his allies.

Still, though, as Harry continued the spell, the fire grew and grew until it took the shape of a small cyclone. The flames that surrounded them rotated at supernatural speeds, throwing flames off in every direction that set every house on the block on fire while also disintegrating the bodies of the fallen Death Eaters. While Harry caused massive amounts of damage to both the people inside the funnel and outside, the Firestorm ended up having the intended response: the full retreat of the Death Eaters.

Harry watched Dolohov as he fended off multiple flaming tendrils in frustration. His force had been utterly destroyed by the combined forces of the Hogwarts professors, the Aurors and a single spell from an eighteen year old wizard. Still, based on the look in his eyes, Dolohov knew that it would be foolish to remain and sprinted off into the Forbidden Forest, where he could Apparate away from the school.

The last thing Harry remembered as he passed out from exhaustion was the sound of Minerva McGonagall shouting his name.

When he woke up in the Hospital Wing the next morning, Harry was shocked to see a number of people sitting around his bed. Ginny sat to his left, his hand in hers while Ron sat next to her. Hermione held tightly to Harry's right hand. On the far side of the room was Neville and Parvati.

All of them were asleep.

Standing at the end of his bed, much like her mentor and predecessor had done a number of times, was Minerva McGonagall, an unreadable look on her face.

"Did they get away?" Harry asked.

"They did." Minerva replied. "You were instructed to stay with the Auror group."

"We both know that you all would have died if I hadn't intervened."

"I don't know that. No one knows that and you certainly don't know that." Minerva said, a cold steel in her voice as she spoke. "You risked your life unnecessarily."

"I did risk my life but it wasn't unnecessary."

"Explain yourself then."

"Dolohov was picking you off one by one. There was no way we could have pushed him out of town with the assistance of the second group. Williamson had his orders and refused to move. So, I came up with an option that I hoped would dwindle their numbers to a more manageable number."

"While also nearly getting yourself killed in the process."

"Well, I clearly didn't include that as part of the plan." Harry said.

Minerva looked at Harry, her eyes darting into his. "You made a calculated risk. I understand that. But I cannot, _we_ cannot have you doing that kind of thing on your own."

"We?"

"You think that this war is over?" Minerva growled, her voice refusing to rise in volume despite its intensity. "You saw them, did you not? The Death Eaters are clearly stronger today than they ever were under Voldemort. Dolohov has organized them into a complete fighting force, ready to do his bidding."

"I don't understand what that has to do with me."

"While I do not know what his final goal is, there are two goals that could do a tremendous amount of damage if he achieved them: killing you or destroying the castle. Last night, he nearly accomplished both."

"I know."

"Harry, do not think that I underestimate you." Minerva whispered. "The improvement that you have shown over just the first half of this year is remarkable. Everyone knew that you were talented. But I think even those who believed that you were underachieving couldn't have expected that you would improve so quickly."

"Thank you."

"At the same time, I need you to be smarter than you were last night. You did an astonishing thing but you did it without thought. More importantly, you did it alone."

"I would have asked Ron or Neville to join me but I didn't want them to get in trouble."

"Harry, do you honestly think they would kick either of them out of the Academy for helping _you?"_

"I suppose not." Harry admitted.

"Promise me that you will be more careful in the future."

"I promise." Harry replied. "What were the casualties like?"

"We believe that the Death Eaters brought roughly thirty people with them. We found nine bodies plus what we believe to be the ash of another six Death Eaters that you incinerated."

"Wow." Harry replied, suddenly aware of the sheer amount of human life that he had ended the previous night. While Harry knew that it was necessary, that didn't make the news easier to take.

"Of those that we recovered, the only one of any value was Gregory Goyle."

"You consider him valuable?"

"He's reportedly been working closely with Dolohov over the last few months."

For as much as all that death weighed on Harry's heart, he did have to admit that there was a slight lift when he heard Rookwood's name. At the very least, the Weasleys would get some semblance of peace knowing that the man who murdered their son had been killed.

"Of the fifty-four Aurors and candidates that participated in the battle last night, forty got to go home to their families today."

"That's good." Harry replied until he noticed the look on Minerva's face. "What's wrong?"

"We lost a professor."

"Who?"

"Filius. He was killed by Dolohov as he escaped from us in the Forest."

Immediately, Harry felt that pit in his stomach drop to his feet. Filius Flitwick had been the Head of Ravenclaw House for decades. He was a dueling champion and a fierce defender of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore and Harry himself. Now, he was gone, killed by Antonin Dolohov.

"Fleur will be taking over as the Charms professor for the rest of the year." Minerva said softly. "In response to this news, I would like to discuss your future at Hogwarts."

"What do you mean?"

"With Professor Flitwick gone, Hogwarts needs a new full-time Charms professor." Minerva explained, although he could still hear the emotion in her voice. It was clear that she was doing everything she could to remain composed. He hoped that sometime in the next few days, she could find some time to herself.

"Hiring professors in this day and age has become almost impossible. Thankfully, Fleur has agreed to take over that post permanently."

"That's great."

"Yes but Bill has already informed me that he cannot remain at Hogwarts beyond this year. He has already accepted another appointment at the Ministry of Magic beginning July 1st."

The implication of her words was clear: she wanted Harry to take the Defense job a year earlier.

"I thought I needed a year of continuing education?"

"I'm going to make an appeal to the Department of Magical Education. They allow for exemptions in special circumstances. I believe that, given all you have gone through, you will be eligible for the exemption under the basis that your year on the run was effectively your continuing education."

Harry was stunned. Not just by the death of Filius Flitwick but how quickly things had moved on.

"However, I cannot apply for the exemption unless you agree to take the position if the exemption is granted." Minerva explained. "So, starting next fall term, will you accept the position of Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts?"

Harry thought for a second. It was all the time he needed.

"Yes."

"Good." Minerva said with a sad smile. "I hate that Filius had to die in order for this to happen but I know how happy he would have been for you. Whether you knew it or not, he was one of your greatest supporters."

"Really?"

"Filius, above all else, valued creativity, something that you have shown time and time again in how you approach problems." Minerva replied. "He would be proud to see a student like you become a professor, as am I."

"Thank you."

"The train will be here later this afternoon to take everyone home. Rest on your break and when you return to school, we will discuss how we intend to make this transition."

"Yes, ma'am."


	25. Twenty-Five

Minerva had ordered Harry to rest during the holiday break and Harry's body was inclined to agree. When the train had finally arrived to take the rest of the students home, Harry had attempted to take the Floo from Minerva's office back to Grimmauld Place, only to collapse from exhaustion on his way up from the Hospital Wing. Thankfully, Daphne Greengrass had been present as one of the Prefects making a final sweep of the castle before leaving on the train.

Harry felt a strange sensation as Daphne charmed Harry to weigh barely more than a feather, allowing her to lift him up from the ground and support Harry all on her own.

"Thanks." Harry muttered in embarrassment.

"It's not a problem." Daphne replied. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just a bit tired."

"That's fairly obvious."

"I suppose so." Harry replied. "Thanks for helping me."

"It's not a problem. Now, where were you trying to go?"

"McGonagall's office. Her fireplace is connected to my house through the Floo Network."

"That must be nice." Daphne commented as they started off towards her office. Even with Harry being nearly weightless, it was still awkward and slow going. Harry felt as if he could fall asleep again at any moment, making his movement sluggish. It was clearly taking everything Daphne had to keep Harry moving in the right direction.

"It was part of the agreement that I made with McGonagall when I came back to school. I wanted the ability to go home on weekends."

"Don't we all?"

"Yes, we do." Harry admitted. "Fortunately for me, I was in a position to bargain a bit and McGonagall agreed under certain conditions."

"Aren't you a lucky one?"

It was clear that Daphne was not pleased with this information. Harry assumed that it looked like another instance of favoritism towards Harry (which, of course, it was). Daphne must have been reading the look on his face because before Harry could defend himself, she interrupted him.

"I don't mean that like that." Daphne added. "I just mean that all of us would like the opportunity to go home every once in awhile. But for some reason, Hogwarts keeps us here."

"Well, it is a boarding school, isn't it?"

"But why?" Daphne asked as they reached the stairs to the Headmistress's office. "We literally possess magical abilities. I understand keeping the school away from the public eye but that doesn't mean that we can't figure out a way to stay at home, even if it was just on weekends."

"I imagine it couldn't be too hard to set up the Floo Network to the homes of magical families. But what about Muggleborn students? The Ministry would never go for intentionally setting up a Floo into a Muggle home."

"We would figure something out." Daphne said as Harry and Daphne finished climbing the stairs into Minerva's office. "Something to think about, isn't it?"

"It is." Harry said honestly. He had never considered the idea that there wasn't really a good reason to keep students at Hogwarts every weekend. Hell, there wasn't even a good reason to keep them during the week but Harry doubted that was a tradition at Hogwarts that would ever change.

"Thanks again for helping me out here."

"You're welcome." Daphne replied with a smile. "I'll stay here until you go through."

"Sure." Harry said as he grabbed a pile of Floo Powder from the bowl next to the fireplace. Using his wand to extinguish the fire, Harry stepped into the fireplace and dropped the powder.

"Grimmauld Place!" Harry shouted as the world disappeared for a moment, spinning in circles like water down a drain. A second later, Harry found himself standing inside the fireplace in his home, a place that he hadn't seen in the month since he and Cho had met there to end their relationship. Despite the fact that almost nothing had changed, Harry couldn't help but feel like the house had lost a bit of the shine that Harry had put into it over the summer.

If Sirius had walked through the door, he would have barely recognized the house. Not a single room in the house had remained the same and several of the rooms on the upper floors had been entirely demolished and rebuilt, the penthouse atrium being the crown jewel of them all. At the time, Harry remembered being excited about the work he had done on the house. While the house still remained some of the darker elements of the Black family, it was an entirely different home, far more modern than any other wizarding house that Harry had ever been in.

Now, as Harry slowly made his way towards his bedroom on the top floor, Harry just felt alone. Hermione had decided that she would be spending most of the break with her parents. As Daphne had so bluntly pointed out, the rest of the school didn't have the ability to visit their home. This meant Hermione, who had only recently brought her parents back from Australia, had been forced to leave them for nearly six months before she would get an opportunity to see them again.

At the same time, Ginny had said that she would be coming back to Grimmauld Place. But, Harry knew better than to expect her there too often. She was still trying to build her relationship with Neville, something that had been struggling because of the consistent distance between them. She also said that she wanted to spend some time back at The Burrow. Harry, of course, would likely spend part of the Christmas holiday there but he had no real desire to spend all of his break with Molly Weasley, no matter how much he loved her.

Harry spent almost the entirety of his first day back at Grimmauld Place in bed, sleeping his way back to health. He only left his bed only to use the bathroom and make himself a quick dinner before sleeping until almost noon the following day.

For nearly three days, this pattern went on with Harry slowly regaining his strength. As he did, Harry began training in the Atrium, turning the open space into a walled maze of sorts. Using some quick Charms, Harry was able to conjure a group of dummies that moved about the maze, creating targets as he moved through the maze. Despite Harry's insistence that he was done fighting, he also knew that this war wasn't done.

More importantly, he knew that this war would go through him, one way or the other. Minerva had been right when she had suggested that Harry would be a target for the Death Eaters until this war was over. That meant that while Harry wouldn't seek out the battle, he was certainly not going to be unprepared for the day when it did come to him.

The war was already coming back to him in a way that Harry had thought he had long moved past: his dreams. The last few nights, Harry had been plagued by dreams and nightmares of dead loved ones, both those already deceased and those not yet gone. Those dreams were mixed in with images of Antonin Dolohov and Voldemort, continuing to taunt him for not being fast enough to save everyone.

Harry knew that if he wanted to join the Aurors, Kingsley would take him tomorrow. More so, Harry knew that he would be good at it, which was Harry's greatest problem at the moment. Tensions were now escalating again with the Death Eaters proving to be a more formidable force than anyone had anticipated. In his heart, Harry wanted nothing more than to quit school and jump into the fray.

But in his mind, Harry knew that wasn't his responsibility. Even though he may be an incredibly talented wizard, he was still only one man. The Ministry had plenty of good people fighting against the Death Eaters and while Harry could assist by taking up arms against the Death Eaters, there were other ways to affect change. His work with Kingsley at the Ministry of Magic had already seen to that.

The argument that Harry was having was between making decisions for the present or for the future. If Harry wanted to make the present better, he could join the Aurors and kill a whole host of Death Eaters. But Harry wasn't certain if he would make a good Auror long term. If the Death Eater threat was ever eradicated, then dealing with small black market dealers and the occasional cult leader nut job was not going to satisfy Harry for the rest of his career.

On the other hand, Harry knew that he would be frustrated watching others fight while he went to Hogwarts and then taught there. But he also knew that if he was successful at Hogwarts, then he could seek to stop people like Voldemort or Dolohov before they even happened, stopping the threat at its source.

Harry had made his decision but that didn't make it any easier.

Harry's first trip outside of Grimmauld Place hadn't helped with that. Three days after Harry had returned to Grimmauld Place, he had reached out to Hermione and Ron, hoping that they would both be free for dinner. Initially, Harry had offered to cook but Hermione had instead suggested that they go to eat somewhere in Diagon Alley. While there were a few eating spots in the Alley, Harry had never tried any other than The Leaky Cauldron. Hermione had suggested a restaurant called The Magician. It was reportedly a high end restaurant that specialized in providing wizards with a wonderful meal served by people dressed up like Muggle illusionists. The idea intrigued Harry so he agreed, followed shortly by Ron.

The only problem, as the three of them saw when they arrived at the restaurant, was that it was closed. In fact, as the trio wandered down the streets of Diagon Alley, it was clear that most of the Alley was closed. The old standards, plus The Wheezes, had remained opened but any of the additional shops that had sprung up in the months after the Battle of Hogwarts had disappeared.

According to Ron, even though the Death Eaters hadn't acted much since Dolohov had broken out, their threat had hung over the people of magical London for months. At first, it looked like everything would blow over. But as the time moved on and no action was reported and no Death Eaters were brought in, people started to get nervous again.

"It was like Voldemort all over again." Ron said. "Even though no one saw him, just the idea of him terrified people. By doing nothing, Dolohov ensured that they couldn't get caught while also scaring the shit out of people."

The tactic had worked and over the last two months, people had simply stopped coming out. Those business that had already been established over the years had managed to survive but only because they seemed essential to daily life. The others, over thirty stores in total, had all closed shop, leaving Diagon Alley a ghost town.

Eventually, the three of them had decided to follow Harry's initial suggestion, returning to Grimmauld Place to have dinner. While none of them said anything, tensions certainly ran high as they ate. No one seemed to want to talk about the hippogriff in the room until finally, Hermione couldn't stand it.

"Are we just going to pretend that this summer never happened?" she finally asked as she sat and watched Harry and Ron eat their dinner in silence.

Both paused at the question before looking across the table at each other. While Harry had noticed that Ron looked different at the Shrieking Shack, he hadn't truly noticed until he saw Ron in better lighting. The things that Harry had noticed before remained the same but the largest difference that Harry saw was in Ron's eyes. They didn't look any different. It was how they acted that caught Harry's attention. In the past, Ron had done almost nothing quickly. At that time, his eyes had drifted back and forth as he looked, sliding from place to place.

Now, his eyes darted back and forth, fixating on a dozen different points every few seconds. It was clear what Ron was doing. He was doing what an Auror was trained to do. He was searching for weak spots, keeping an eye on potential entrances and exits, looking for anything that might appear out of the ordinary. While for most people this would have given off the look that Ron had taken some strange Muggle medication, it instead made Ron look more like a bird of prey.

He looked like a raptor, ready to snap on his prey from a kilometer away.

Ron and Harry continued to look at each other in silence before Ron finally put his fork down. It was clear that he wanted to speak first and that he was thinking about what exactly he wanted to say. So, Harry waited.

"I know that I have done a lot over the years, to both of you, that...affected your trust in me." Ron admitted. "I know that I haven't always been the greatest friend. I have been jealous and insecure and selfish. I have no excuse for any of that stuff."

Ron settled into his chair a bit more but he was still never what Harry would call relaxed. That's when Harry saw it. Ron _was_ relaxed. Well, he was as relaxed as Ron knew how to be now. In the past, when Ron had really settled down, he would often slouch, putting his feet on the table or the sides of the chair, leaning all the way back.

Well, Ron had leaned back ever so slightly and his feet had kicked out just a few inches.

This was relaxed now. After all these months of training, Ron understood that relaxing in the way he used to made him vulnerable. If someone approached him from behind, he was in a terrible position to defend himself. If someone attacked him from the front, it would take seconds to get to his feet, seconds he was likely not to have.

This was relaxed now: a slightly lean back and his feet a few inches away from his chair. There was no greater indication of how much Ron had changed.

"I wanted to kill someone so badly after the Battle." Ron admitted. "I didn't even care who. I knew that Rookwood had escaped but I just wanted to go after someone. Every day that I spent at The Burrow was another day that I couldn't go out and hunt Death Eaters. But my time at the Academy made me rethink some of the things that I had been told."

"I know that I was a broken man. I know that I am likely still a broken man and it may be years before that's not true. Who knows? It may always be true. But I know who I am." Ron said firmly, punctuating each word of his last sentence. "The reason that I was broken, the reason that I am broken is not just because I lost Fred but because everyone else that I cared about lost him too."

"Almost everyone in my Academy class was going through something similar. Maybe it wasn't their brother but in a war like this, almost everyone has lost someone. At first, no one wanted to talk about anything. We showed up early and we fought and we learned and we went home. But slowly, that changed. One by one, most of us have opened up to someone on the team."

"You were right, Harry." Ron finally admitted, looking up at Harry. "I needed time and I need to try and move forward. I'm not sure if I would have done that if I hadn't gone to the Academy. It likely saved me from falling into a pit of misery that I'm not certain I ever would have gotten out of. But, it also made me see just how much of a shit friend I had been over the years."

"Ron…"

"Hermione," Ron said, interrupting her before she could continue, "I spent seven years being horrible to you. I loved you and I still treated you like dirt. I was jealous of anyone who looked at you and even more jealous of anyone who talked to you. I treated you like you were mine but I was too much of a coward to ever act on how I felt. There's no amount of apologizing I can do to make up for that."

Ron turned to Harry, tears in his eyes.

"I don't know what to say, mate." Ron said, his voice cracking as he spoke. "I don't. I just want my friends back. There were so many times at the Academy that I wanted to talk to you. I would think of something and it would remind me of you and all I wanted was to send you a letter about it."

Ron's eyes dropped to the floor in shame.

"But I knew that I couldn't."

"Ron, you could have sent us a letter at any time." Harry replied. "It's like you said before you left. If you needed anything, you knew where I was."

"I know. I know." Ron replied. "Listen, I'm not going to be perfect. There are going to be times when I'm still going to be an insufferable son of a bitch. But I understand myself better now. I know that years of trying to live up to the reputation of my family made me self-conscious. I know that being friends with two of the most talented students in our year made me jealous. I know these things and I am working to fix them."

"You know that you are also one of the most talented wizards from our year, right?" Harry asked.

"Maybe. It doesn't feel like it."

"Ron, don't you have the highest grade in the entire Auror Academy right now?" Hermione asked. "Aren't you on pace to set several records for high scores?"

"Yeah but it's all stuff that Harry taught me."

"Stop it." Harry said, grinding his teeth as he spoke. "This is it. This kind of shit right here is why people want to punch you in the face sometimes."

"What?"

"Do you know how many people I taught?"

"Like dozens of people?"

"Yes but how many of them are challenging the all-time records at the Auror Academy?" Harry asked. "How many of them are being specifically named by the Head of the Aurors as a top candidate?"

"Robards mentioned me? When?"

"I met with Robards about a month ago." Harry said. "Once this school year is over, I will be working with the new Head Auror to reformat the Academy and the Hogwarts Defense curriculum so that they coordinate better."

"Does that mean you'll be running the Academy?"

"No. I'll be in charge of ensuring that every Auror has a consistent Defense education from their first year at Hogwarts until they graduate from the Academy. I will effectively be running the education of the school. Someone else will be handling the day to day administration."

"That's amazing." Ron said with a genuine smile on his face. "That's really awesome."

"It is." Harry admitted. "In that meeting, Robards named your success specifically as evidence of my success with Dumbledore's Army."

"So it is your teaching!" Ron countered.

"Am I taking your tests for you, Ron?" Harry shouted. "Do I get to walk through your practical drills with you? No! We've all had the same teachers over the years. There are still some people in our year who I wouldn't trust to try and Stun someone, let alone lead an Auror strike team."

"What's your point?"

"Their instruction was the same and yet, the results are different." Harry explained. "That means that there is something about the person that explains that. You've had the same teachers as all the rest of your classmates at the Academy and you, not me, are going to come out of the Auror Academy with the highest score in over two decades."

"Do you think that you would beat my score if you did it?"

"That's not the point! Dammit, Ron, the point of the matter is that you are an exceptionally talent wizard on your own merits." Harry said firmly. "You don't need to compare yourself to me or to Moody or Tonks or anyone because within the next few weeks, every single Auror candidate is going to be comparing themselves to you."

"Anyway, none of that is the real point, Ron." Harry said, moving the conversation back to their original topic. "I look at you and I see a lot of good changes. But this conversation proves that you still have a long way to go."

"I don't know-"

"But, I can see just how hard you are trying." Harry said, interrupting Ron to finish his point. "I know that the Auror Academy is not a cakewalk and yet, you are flying through it. I hear what you're saying about your jealousy and your self-consciousness and I can see that you understand how much that hurt Hermione and me. I believe you, Ron, and I can't tell you how happy I am that you found someone to open up to. It's clearly done a wonder of good for you."

"Thanks."

"Fred would be proud of you." Harry said gently. Ron's reaction was instantaneous as he remembered Harry's words from over the summer.

"I won't let you guys down. Not again." Ron promised.

"We know." Hermione said softly. "We know."

For the first time in months, The Golden Trio, as the Daily Prophet had taken to calling them, was at peace. While they certainly weren't completely fixed, all three of them had reached a point where they were willing to try, which was a far cry from how Harry had felt when he had left for school. Harry had been serious when he saw just how hard Ron was trying. Effort went a long way in Harry's mind and seeing that kind of effort from Ron made him more than willing to try and work things out.

Maybe someday soon, the three Gryffindors would really be the Golden Trio once more.

The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. Ron and Hermione both returned to their respective homes around ten, leaving Harry alone in Grimmauld Place once again, happy with the way the evening had turned out. Deciding to turn in early, Harry retreated to his bedroom to read for a bit before going to bed.

However, when he got to his room, there was a letter sitting on his bed. As he picked it up, Harry saw that it contained the seal of the Minister of Magic. Opening the letter, Harry read it, only mildly surprised by what it said.

 _Harry,_

 _Tomorrow morning, I am assembling a group of qualified individuals at my office. The meeting will start promptly at 9 am and will include a classified briefing on the Death Eaters. Please be on time._

 _Kingsley_

"Qualified individuals." Harry muttered to himself. This seemed to be a meeting of the elite players at the Ministry along with officials who were dealing with the Death Eaters personally. It was likely to be the most powerful group of people assembled since Dumbledore's death. While Harry wasn't certain who would be invited, he knew that everyone in attendance would be a valuable asset for Harry moving forward.

Still, Harry knew that he would have plenty of time to think about that meeting in the morning. He put the letter on his bedside table and opened his book, a recently released tome on the last fifty years of failings by the Chudley Cannons. Harry was only thirty pages in and yet he was relatively certain at least half of the things that had been written had been made up.

That had gotten him through the first three months of 1948.

About an hour later, as Harry was finishing reading about the 1952 team, whose manager disappeared two weeks into the season at the same time two of their Chasers were going through a brutal divorce causing them to duel in the middle of no less than six games that season, he heard a knock on the door. Putting the book aside, Harry walked to the door and opened it, revealing a distressed Ginny Weasley on the other side.

Ginny was typically a direct person. If she was angry, you knew. If she was happy, you knew. Internal conflict was a rarity for someone as decisive as her and external conflict was even more rare but it was clear that there was some real conflict going on inside her head. For a moment, Harry waited for her to say something but when it was clear that she wasn't going to, he stepped forward.

"Do you want to come in?" Harry asked. Ginny took a second before looking up at Harry, nodding as she marched passed him and took a seat on his bed. Harry closed the door behind him before turning around and observing her behavior. Ginny had sat on the foot of the bed and while she wasn't slouched over entirely, her body seemed to collapse in on itself.

Harry took a second before sitting down next to her. The moment he did, she placed her head on his shoulder and a hand on his leg and collapsed. While she never cried, she also didn't say a word for nearly an hour. On at least a handful of occasions, Harry spoke up to ask her what exactly was causing her so much trouble. Each time, he closed his mouth and waited. Ginny was not the type of person that could be pushed into speaking when she was like this.

You had to wait it out.

Finally, well over an hour after she sat down, she spoke. When she did, her voice cracked, forcing Harry to listen intently just to hear what she was saying.

"Sorry about this."

"It's fine." Harry replied. Now that she had spoken, Harry knew that she was ready to talk. "What's the matter?"

"Well, nothing is really wrong, I suppose."

"Really? That's why you sat here in silence for an entire hour?"

"Neville suggested that we should move in together."

That was certainly not what Harry had expected. If anything, Harry had thought that Neville broke up with her, especially considering the news that they were on a break.

"That's good, right?"

"Yeah." Ginny whispered.

"Great."

"Yeah, it's great."

"I'm happy for you." Harry said, despite the strange pit forming in his stomach.

"I'm happy too."

Harry had been trying to bait Ginny into disagreeing with him. However, it was clear that she was not going to do that.

"Ginny, you are not happy right now."

"Yes, I am." Ginny said, turning to Harry defiantly. "I am so happy!"

"You came into this room, put your head on my shoulder and sat, in silence, for over an hour!" Harry fired back.

"I'm not allowed to be happy and quiet at the same time?"

"I am so tired of Weasleys today." Harry said, mostly to himself, as he collapsed backwards on the bed as he tried to rub his frustration out of his face.

"What?"

"Ginny, I am not in the mood to do this dance with you tonight." Harry replied, knowing that he was taking some of his frustrations out on her. However, she was causing some of those frustrations so Harry didn't feel too bad about doing so. "If you're happy that you're moving in with Neville, then I'm happy for you. If you're not, then I don't know what to tell you."

"But I'm not moving in with Neville."

Harry's brain skipped a beat upon hearing that. For a moment, he froze, waiting for everything to catch up before he turned back to Ginny.

"But you said that he asked you to move in with him."

"He did."

"But you just said you aren't moving in with him."

"I'm not."

"But he asked you."

"And I said no."

Harry had a sudden desire to throw things. Instead, he stood up and started pacing the room.

"Let me get this straight: Neville asked you to move in with him."

"Yes."

"Which is a good thing?"

"Yes."

"And so you said...no?"

"Yes."

"Why!?" Harry shouted despite himself. "You just said it was a good thing. Why don't you want to move in with him?"

"Because I don't want to move in with him." Ginny answered. "I like living here-"

"When you're here."

"I like living here," Ginny repeated, "and I don't feel like I'm ready to move in with him yet."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm seventeen years old?" Ginny replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You moved in with us."

"That's different."

"How?"

"I'm not dating you or Hermione." Ginny said firmly. Harry found that the flippant nature of her response bothered him.

"So you're okay with moving away from home, just not with your boyfriend."

"Right."

"OK." Harry said finally. "I suppose I can understand that."

"Plus, I don't think we're going to be together much longer."

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He turned to Ginny and grabbed her hands, putting them on the bed in front of her.

"Ginny."

"Yes?"

"Why did you come in here?"

Harry watched Ginny as she thought about what exactly had brought her to Harry's doorstep. She had never once gone out of her way to talk about her relationship with Neville in front of Harry. While Harry had accepted their relationship, and had told Ginny as much on several occasions, he knew that she still felt awkward being around Harry with Neville.

But here she was. She clearly had something on her mind regarding their relationship. She hadn't gone to Hermione (that Harry knew) and she hadn't gone to Luna or any of her other friends.

She had gone to Harry and he firmly believed that there was a reason for that.

"I wanted you to tell me it was okay to break up with him." Ginny whispered.

Finally, the truth came out.

"Oook." Harry said, letting the O stretch over a few seconds. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to break up with him?"

"Because I don't love him."

"How long have the two of you been together?"

"Are you counting the time that we spend at school?"

"Yes."

"Then I suppose we started seeing more of each other in October of last school year. That's when they really started testing Neville on an almost daily basis. We would go to the Room of Requirement to escape the Carrows and stay there for a couple of days. Things just went on from there."

"If you're starting there, then your relationship has lasted more than a year."

"Off and on, yes."

"You still have another six months of school left."

"What's your point?"

"Well, even if you moved in with him, you would go back to school in January. You could give it a test run until then and see how it goes."

"Are you trying to change my mind? Do you want me to go live with Neville?"

"No." Harry replied until he realized that answer made it sound like he was jealous. "I mean, yes! I mean…..No, I am not trying to change your mind and I could not care less if you lived with Neville or not."

"So you don't like having me here?"

"Of course I like having you here!"

"Harry?" Ginny asked seriously.

"Yes?"

"I'm just messing with you." Ginny said before her grim visage turned into a massive grin plastered across her face. Harry took a second to breath so that he didn't curse Ginny into oblivion. It had been this kind of thing that had attracted Harry to her in the first place. Ginny was beautiful and brilliant but could also take a joke as easily as she could dish one out.

The joys of living in a house full of brothers.

"Sure." Harry said. "In any case, you don't have to make a decision yet."

"I think I have." Ginny admitted and for the first time, Harry thought that she was actually being honest with Harry.

"You already knew that you were going to break up with him?"

"I was pretty sure."

"Why come to me, then?"

"Because I knew that, in the end, you would support whatever I wanted to do. But I also knew that you would try and come up with a way to keep Neville and I together. You would throw out a few ideas about how we could make it work."

"You wanted to hear what they sounded like." Harry realized. "From someone else, I guess?"

Ginny nodded. "I've been tossing out those kind of ideas in my head for the last few hours and none of them sounded good. But I didn't want to do anything rash. So I came to the most honorable man I could think of to see what he thought."

"I think you should still give it a try." Harry replied. "The two of you haven't had what you would consider a normal relationship."

"I know." Ginny said. "But I've spent all of the last three days with him. He's still Neville. That hasn't changed. But he just isn't what I want anymore."

"What do you want?" Harry asked nervously.

"Just...something else." Ginny said, her eyes locked on Harry's. Harry froze for a moment before he was able to find the words he wanted to say.

"Then tell him that. Neville's a reasonable person. If you're honest with him, he'll understand." Harry said. "I mean, it's not like you never want to see him again, right?"

"Right. I just want to be friends." Ginny replied. "We got close during a bad time. I'll never be able to repay him for the fact that I still have my sanity."

"Tell him that and everything will be fine. He might still be upset but it's Neville. He'll come around."

"I know. It's just hard."

"Trust me, I know."

With a nervous smile, Ginny stood and slowly wandered towards Harry's door. When she reached it, she stopped and turned back to Harry.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me." Harry said. "You know that I'm here for you, no matter what."

Ginny nodded, the sadness in her smile falling away ever so slightly.

"No matter what."

Harry watched as Ginny turned and walked out of the room, a new determination in her step that hadn't been there before. As he sat there, he couldn't say that he was surprised they were breaking up. Ginny had spent the last few weeks telling Harry that she was really struggling with their distance, something that wasn't going to change for another six months yet.

Still, Harry was surprised that Ginny had come to him with this. The two of them had done a lot to develop their relationship over the last six months at school with Ginny being one of his closest friends. In fact, she had probably become his most trusted friend other than Hermione. Harry supposed then that it made sense that she would come to him. She hadn't seen Ron for months, Hermione wasn't always the best at dealing with people and Luna was…..well, for all the changes that she had gone through over the last few months, she was still Luna.

That change was coupled with quite a few other differences from his life on May 2nd. While his relationship with Ron was slowly on the mend, it was clearly not the same as it was. On the other hand, Harry had gained new friends in Parvati Patil and, albeit reluctantly, Daphne Greengrass. While his relationship with Hermione was as strong as ever, it was different now. Without Ron around, Harry talked to Hermione far more frequently than he had in the past.

But his relationship with Ginny had clearly changed since the Yule Ball. Something had changed and neither of them were brave enough to address it. Harry desperately wanted to talk to Ginny about what had happened during the Ball. But he was also worried about having that conversation. What if he had misinterpreted her intentions? What if she was just playing with him, as Ginny was want to do. What if she wanted less than Harry wanted? What if all she wanted was a physical relationship? Harry wouldn't be against that idea but he knew that wasn't really what he wanted. Harry wasn't the "physical relationship" type and he knew it.

Harry turned in that night, uncertain of what exactly he was going to do with Ginny. When he woke up the next morning, his mind immediately shifted back to Ginny along with the meeting that he would have with Kingsley that morning. He was thinking of how things with Ginny may turn out when he arrived at a locked bathroom door. Knowing that Ginny wouldn't be up before eleven on a holiday, Harry knew that there could only be one option.

Rather than pressure her, Harry simply took a seat outside the bathroom door and waited while thinking that the first of his renovations after he graduated would be to add a second bathroom. Thankfully, Hermione finished almost a few minutes after Harry come downstairs, walking out of the bathroom almost completely dressed.

"Harry, what are you doing up?" she asked as she walked out of the bathroom, dressed and ready for the day, which meant that she had already been up for nearly two hours.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Harry said. "I have a meeting with Kingsley today."

"Really? So do I."

"What time?"

"Nine."

"That's the same time as my meeting." Harry said with a smirk. "I guess we're both qualified individuals."

"Seems to be the case." Hermione grinned. "Well, if you hurry up, we can Floo to the Ministry together."

"Yes, ma'am." Harry said with a mocked salute. It took Harry less than fifteen minutes to shower, shave and get dressed in his best suit. Once he was certain that he looked presentable, he walked down the stairs to the living room where Hermione waited, also dressed in a smart business suit.

"You're forgoing robes?" Hermione asked.

"As are you, I see."

"I hate them." Hermione replied. "Besides, robes are falling out of fashion anyway. People are wising up to the fact that you can't very well hide from Muggles while wearing a floor-length plum colored robe."

"If you say so." Harry said with a smirk as he motioned towards the fireplace. "Ladies first."

First Hermione and then Harry experienced the awkward feeling of Floo travel before being launched from the fireplaces in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Thankfully, both Harry and Hermione had become quite experienced Floo travelers over the years and both were able to land on their feet, their momentum already carrying them in the direction of Kingsley's office.

When they arrived at the end of the corridor where the office of the Minister of Magic could be found, Harry saw that the door was already open and entered with Hermione on his heels. While Harry had been here before, Hermione had not and it took everything Harry had not to chuckle at his friend and her suddenly stunned appearance.

Very rarely was a moment too big for Hermione Granger. But, Harry figured that being inside the office of the most powerful magical person in the country was an acceptable time to be awestruck. The two couches that had been in the room before had been removed and Kingsley's desk had been pushed back against the wall, leaving only a circle of chairs in the room.

Harry and Hermione took seats next to the door, leaving only one chair available. Harry looked around the room and saw that while he recognized almost everyone, including an incredibly excited Arthur Weasley and a moderately enthused Percy Weasley, there were a couple of faces that were new to him. However, the most surprising face was not any of the ones already seated, it was the last one to walk in the door.

"Reporting for duty, sir." said an incredibly serious Ronald Weasley as he entered the room, still dressed in his Academy wardrobe.

Kingsley smiled at Ron and motioned for him to relax.

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley. You may have a seat. I believe there is one left there."

Ron turned to sit down and looked up to see Harry and Hermione sitting next to the vacant seat. For a moment, Harry saw something that clearly registered as jealousy cross Ron's face. He had thought that he had been the only one of them invited.

At the very least, he hadn't considered that Harry and Hermione would be there too. Still, that expression appeared and disappeared in a flash replaced by a warm smile as he took the seat next to Hermione.

"So you guys got invited too?" Ron asked as he took his seat. "That's great."

"It is." Harry said. "Have you seen who is in this room?"

Just as Harry said that, Kingsley stood.

"Before we get started, I would like to introduce everyone and explain why everyone is here." Kingsley said, formally beginning the meeting. "Obviously, we have the rest of the Executive Council, Senior Undersecretary Tiberius Ogden and Junior Undersecretary Percy Weasley along with Chief Warlock John Dawlish."

While Ogden and Weasley registered no response at the sound of their name, Dawlish looked as if he would rather be anywhere in the world than at this particular meeting, a trend that Harry had noticed at all of the Wizengamot meetings that he had attended since Dawlish was named Chief Warlock.

Perhaps the administrative life wasn't suiting him.

"From the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, we have Department Head Meredith Breckinridge and Head Auror Gawain Robards."

Gawain and Meredith both looked at the Minster before looking across the room at Harry, giving him a brief nod of acknowledgement which Harry quickly returned.

"From the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Deputy Department Head Arthur Weasley has joined us in place of Albert Wolf. Also, Minerva McGonagall was supposed to attend. Unfortunately, she has another matter to attend to. Thankfully, one of her future staff members was already part of the invited parties."

Kingsley looked at Harry as he said this. Now, Harry was not only attending as himself but he was also the sole representative from Hogwarts, the single greatest security risk in the country.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione: thank you for attending today." Kingsley said before turning to the rest. "Obviously, we all know who these three are. Without them, none of us are sitting here today."

"We are here today because you, or the people you represent, are the leading experts on the Death Eaters left. While we may have defeated Lord Voldemort, the fact remains that the Death Eaters are still a viable threat to our safety. The purpose of today's meeting is to inform you on several issues. The first of these is a letter the Ministry received."

Kingsley turned to his desk and picked up a letter and a black envelope. The envelope had, in the corner, a small silver skull with a snake coming out of its mouth: the sign of the Death Eaters. Kingsley opened the letter as he put on his glasses and then read the letter aloud.

 _To the most Honorable Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt:_

 _This letter has only a single purpose: to inform you that you are fighting a war that you have already lost. You may have killed The Dark Lord but the ideals of his mission live on in us. As you saw from our attempt to liberate Hogsmeade from the hands of the weak and foolish, we are a far more formidable fighting force than you can possibly handle. Your Aurors are weak and feeble, propped up in that battle by school teachers._

 _I do not tell you this to frighten you. I tell you this to inform you that your time as Minister of Magic will be a prosperous one if you allow us to take what rightfully belongs to us. We represent the oldest and wisest families in all of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Without our families, there would be no Hogwarts, no Ministry. Without our families, there would be no Dumbledores or Weasleys or Shacklebolts._

 _I am not foolish enough to think that you will heed this message. You will continue to fight because you believe that you are right. We may disagree on that but there is great honor in your continued resistance. For that, when the time comes, we will grant those that fight honorably a gracious and easy death._

 _Consider this your only warning, Minister. The Death Eaters are no longer at the whims of a madman and we will not sit by idly while you return our country to those ill-equipped to handle it._

 _Antonin Dolohov_

Kingsley finished the letter and then allowed the room to absorb it for a few moments in silence.

"Before anyone else says anything, I would like Head Auror Robards to update you all on the Death Eater investigation."

Kingsley motioned for Gawain to stand. As he did, Kingsley took a seat next to his desk, watching and listening to Gawain intently.

"Dolohov is not wrong." Gawain said. "The Death Eaters are far more effective now than they ever were with Voldemort in charge."

"Why is that?" Kingsley asked.

"As far as I understand it, Voldemort was not truly interested in running the country. He did not run the Death Eaters as a military installation. As a result, when the time came for open battle, they were not effective or cohesive as a fighting force."

"And this is the opposite of Dolohov's strategy?"

"Dolohov was an Auror prior to being exposed as a Death Eater. As a result, his leadership of the group has made them far less radical but militarized. Wherever they are hiding, they are training while they are there. Against the number of Aurors that we had in Hogsmeade and aided by several incredibly gifted Hogwarts professors, anything less would have meant the complete eradication of the Death Eaters."

"Where are they training?" Harry asked.

"We're not certain." Gawain admitted. "There are several rumors that we are actively investigating. Some place them at the Dolohov Estate, others at Malfoy Manor. Unfortunately, both locations are heavily guarded and that makes them incredibly difficult to investigate without being discovered."

"Where are these rumors coming from?" Kingsley questioned. "I'm assuming that we don't have any Death Eaters talking."

"Correct, sir. We've been utilizing a network for assets in Knockturn Alley. We're….we're-"

"We're looking the other way on a rash of potential smuggling crimes to bring in the Death Eaters." Meredith said, interrupting Gawain as he suddenly appeared nervous to speak. "Sir, we're doing everything in our power to bring Dolohov and his followers in. It's our highest priority and we've sacrificed quite a few chances to bring in non-Death Eaters to get the little information we have on them."

Looking around the room, Harry could tell that there were some nerves about what they were hearing. While Harry didn't love the idea of their strategy, he understood it. But looking across the room at the two other Weasleys, Harry could tell that they were both upset at what they had heard.

"How many people are going to walk free because of this?" Percy finally asked.

"If we catch the Death Eaters based on their intel, then about a dozen." Gawain replied.

"A dozen people!?" Percy said in shock before addressing Kingsley. "Sir, we have to-"

"We have to catch the Death Eaters." Kingsley said, cutting him off firmly. "If we don't capture Dolohov and the rest of his army, how many people will die?"

Kingsley turned back to Robards and Meredith.

"These sources, are anything of them bringing in things that could kill people?"

"We can't say for certain."

"Why not?"

"Because, sir, we're not prepared to say what could or couldn't kill someone." Meredith replied, which clearly only frustrated Kingsley.

"Fine. Is this intention of these items to kill people?"

"No, sir."

"Then continue." Kingsley said, anger bubbling just under the surface. Kingsley was a man of moral principles. Harry never would have taken this particular path and neither would Kingsley unless he felt like he had no other choice.

"The large majority of our sources have been smuggling wands, cloaks and other defensive gear out of Knockturn Alley. The wands are mostly Asian made, smuggled to Africa and then up the Atlantic coast from Morocco and Tunisia and sold on the black market here. The items are taken to a specified point and then dropped there. After that, the items are retrieved by a team of Death Eaters who confirm everything on site. If everything checks out, the money appears in an entirely separate location an hour later."

"None of these people ever see the Death Eaters?" Harry asked.

"They aren't supposed to, no. However, we've been able to pay some of them to stake out the drop location. Roughly ten minutes after the drop, a team of three Death Eaters show up and confirm the items."

"Why haven't you ambushed them at the drop site yet?" Arthur said.

"Because the location of the drop site is unknown by the smuggler. A Death Eater comes to their establishment, takes them by Side-Along Apparition to the spot and then leaves them there to unload." Gawain replied. "Once the Death Eater leaves, the smuggler has one minute to drop the items and leave."

"Not enough of a window to organize any sort of attack." Kingsley replied.

"No, sir." Gawain confirmed. "Even if we could figure out where exactly they were going, it would take another two or three minutes to organize the attack."

"That's fine." Kingsley said, although it sounded like it was definitely not fine. "What else do we have?"

"Well, sir, it is my belief that with these supplies, we're looking at the real possibility that their attack on Hogsmeade was just the beginning." Gawain said, pulling some notes out of his bag. "If Dolohov's force from Hogsmeade was only a part of his followers, we could be looking at some real problems. That group stood up to several Auror squads. If he's got more people out there, and based on the equipment that he's been getting, I would say he does, then he's getting ready to go big."

"Potential targets?" Ogden asked.

"Hogwarts again, Diagon Alley, the Ministry." Gawain answered.

"Not to mention every single Muggle governmental structure in London." Meredith added. "Parliament and Westminster Abbey being the two big choices."

"I'm confused." Harry said suddenly. "You keep saying that Dolohov is more military than Voldemort was. He's training an army. Why are we concerned that he's going to attack buildings?"

"Because Antonin Dolohov is not just a military man, Harry." Gawain replied. "When we talk to our smugglers, they talk about Dolohov like he's the second coming of Grindelwald. Dolohov, above all else, wants power. He wants control. As we said, he was an Auror. Somewhere in his mind, he still believes everything that he swore an oath to uphold. It just got twisted along the way."

"So you're saying that he's going to take this war to the Muggles?"

"Yes." Gawain said. "He'll start by weakening us. He'll pick one or two targets and hit them hard. He'll hit at least one place that we haven't even considered and then, when we're not looking, he'll go after one of the big targets. Once he's done that, once the whole world is watching, that's when he'll escalate. He wants the world to watch as he leads the revolution that will lead magical people across the world take it back from the Muggles."

"And he'll do all of this, kill thousands of people and destroy our way of life, plunging us into a civil war with the Muggles for Merlin knows how long, just to gain power?" Hermione asked.

Gawain nodded. "Antonin Dolohov holds the belief that what's his is his and what isn't his will be his soon. He'll take a few pieces here and there but when the time comes, he's going to hit us hard."

Listening to all of this, Harry found that he couldn't reconcile the version of Dolohov that Harry saw, the one that let Harry live for a single moment, and the man that Gawain was describing. If Dolohov was so interested in weakening them, he wouldn't have let Harry go and he wouldn't have spared Hogsmeade. If Gawain was right, he would have killed Harry and burned Hogwarts to the ground.

"Refuse me and I'll bring everyone with me the next time." Harry muttered.

"What?" Gawain said.

"It's something Dolohov said during the attack." Harry replied. "Gawain, even if you include the candidates, how many Aurors could you add to the force garrisoned at Hogwarts?"

"And still have people searching for the Death Eaters? None."

"You said he was an Auror, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Can we assume that, like Voldemort, he has people inside the Ministry feeding him information?"

"Harry!" Hermione said next to Harry, clearly shocked at the audacity of Harry's question.

On the other hand, Kingsley had no qualms about his question.

"Yes. It can't be as prevalent as it was for Voldemort but he has to be getting information somehow."

"He would know the number of Aurors we have." Meredith said, starting to put the puzzle together. "If he knows how many we have, plus the candidates, he'll know that we can't afford to bring more to the castle."

"He was probing the castle." Hermione said, looking at Harry to confirm her theory.

"That's what I believe." Harry said. "I think that he wanted to see what the reaction would be."

"Attack once and see how they react." Kingsley said. "They'll be better equipped for another attack."

"Are you saying that he's going to attack Hogwarts again?" Arthur asked Harry.

"Without a doubt." Harry confirmed. "He was baiting us. He brought a small group and marched through Hogsmeade. We threw every Auror and every professor at that group. No one remained behind to defend the school. No one was prepared to defend any other path of entry."

"If he had been smart, he would have sent another force from the opposite direction." Ron said. "The school was completely defenseless."

"Gawain, Dolohov is going to attack again." Harry said. "It won't be his next attack or even the one after that. He'll bide his time, make us think that he's forgotten all about Hogwarts. Then, when we're at our weakest, he'll attack the school again and this time, if we're not careful, he'll take it."


	26. Twenty-Six

When Harry returned home to Grimmauld Place after the meeting at the Ministry, he quickly drafted a note to Minerva detailing the information that Gawain Robards had presented at the meeting along with his own theories about Dolohov's intention to attack the school again. Rather than risk sending the message by owl only for it to be intercepted by Dolohov, Harry simply used the Floo Network back to her office and set the message on her desk.

Later that day, Harry received a note back from Minerva, indicating that she had gotten his message and was just as concerned about another attack from Dolohov, especially over the holidays. Thankfully, she had an option that allowed her, as the Head of the school, to completely lock the school.

Every door, every window, every secret entrance was magically closed and completely incapable of being opened without the Head of Hogwarts cancelling the charm. It would prevent anyone from getting into the school over break without having to keep an entire squad of Aurors outside of it.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he read this, knowing that the school would be safe until they returned to school. At that point, it certainly became a tough choice for Dolohov. He could attack the school with no one there but he wouldn't be able to get in, leaving him out and in the open for a counter-attack.

His other option was to wait for the school to open back up again. However, the number of people there would make taking the castle difficult and certainly put his men at a higher risk of losing their lives. But as much as Dolohov would have loved to attack when there was no one there, Minerva had just made sure that any attempt to take the school over the holiday break would be futile.

Knowing that Hogwarts was safe, Harry relaxed for the rest of the week leading up to Christmas. During his time off, Harry started working on a project for Minerva that he had been slowly working on with Daphne: the escape routes from the school. Except that now, Harry was also using the Marauder's Map to point out potential weaknesses in the school that could be exploited if the Death Eaters would attack again. While Harry didn't consider himself an expert in defending a structure like Hogwarts, he did possess more knowledge of the school's inner workings than every other living person, meaning that if there was someone that could understand how the school could be breached, it was Harry.

Still, without Daphne or Minerva to assist him, Harry spent the next few days doing only the bare minimum of work on the project while spending time with Ginny and Hermione. Both of them would be spending Christmas morning with their families before Harry and Hermione would join the Weasleys at the Burrow for lunch and the full Weasley family Christmas. Bill and Fleur were spending the morning together and Charlie wasn't arriving at the Burrow until the afternoon. Percy had to work some of Christmas Day and had picked to work in the morning so that he could join the family in the afternoon as well.

This left just George, Ron and Ginny to spend the morning with Arthur and Molly.

At the same time, Hermione left two days before Christmas and would spend Christmas Eve and the bulk of Christmas Day with them. While Hermione had spent less time than Harry had expected with her family during the holiday, she still had spent a majority of her time with them, leaving Harry alone in Grimmauld Place with just Ginny, which had admittedly made Harry a bit nervous. Things were in a strange place between Harry and Ginny at the moment, both of them seemingly interested in..something happening between the two of them but neither of them willing (or brave enough) to act on that interest.

Both Hermione and the Weasleys had invited Harry to spend Christmas morning with them, knowing that if he didn't go with one or the other, Harry would be left alone on Christmas.

But, as Harry told them, he wouldn't be alone.

"Thanks," he had said each time they had asked, "but I think I would rather spend Christmas morning with my family."

Harry had then explained to Ginny and Ron about finding his parent's resting place during his foray into Godric's Hollow last Christmas with Hermione. While both of them understood his reasoning, Harry knew that they each felt bad for him, especially Ron because of the things that he had said before leaving on the Horcrux Hunt.

The night before Christmas, Ginny stopped in Harry's room one last time to ask if he was sure that he wanted to remain alone on Christmas morning. Harry assured her that he wouldn't be alone and that he would see her the next afternoon. Ginny nodded and then moved to leave before freezing in the doorway. She turned back to Harry, looking as if she had something that she wanted to say. Harry sat up from his bed, hoping that she would say something.

Instead, she wished Harry a Merry Christmas and then hurried out the door.

Harry woke Christmas morning to an empty house as expected. While Harry had to be at the Weasleys in the middle of the afternoon, he had no particular schedule until then. He took his time getting ready, making a rather hefty breakfast that would last him until what was sure to be a massive lunch prepared by Molly Weasley, before showering and then dressing in his finest robes.

Once Harry was ready to go, he thought of the place where he wanted to go and with a quick twist, he was there, standing in the middle of the main road of Godric's Hollow. Just like the year before, snow had fallen, albeit not as much as previous year. Harry walked down the center of the street, his feet crunching in the snow as he moved.

Not surprisingly, almost no one was out on the street this morning. However, Harry could look in the front window of almost every house and see a family in the middle of opening their gifts. For a moment, Harry felt a pang of jealousy. All of these people had what Harry never had a chance to experience. Sure, Harry had a family but he knew that it would never be the same. Ron and Ginny would always feel a pull to be with the Weasleys on Christmas just like Hermione would with her parents.

Harry just hoped that one day, he could create a family of his own. It wasn't something that he was actively considering due to the amount of work that Harry had along with the fact that he was only eighteen years old. But it was something that he definitely wanted some day: a wife and children, a family to call his own.

As Harry walked down the street, he passed the house where his parents had been murdered for the second time in his life. Seeing the notes and signs of support still gave Harry a warm feeling in his heart. Still, Harry couldn't help but feel that he would rather see the house burned to the ground now that Voldemort was dead. The past was the past and Harry wasn't in any hurry to relive it.

If you had to burn it down to move past it, then so be it.

The church, unlike the last time that Harry had been to Godric's Hollow, was empty. That meant that there were no potential for eyes on Harry as he marched past the front door and through the gate to the cemetery. Harry moved quickly through the graveyard, passing the Dumbledore graves as he went. Unlike last year, Harry didn't have to search the tombstones.

He knew exactly where they were at.

Harry wandered to the far corner where his parents had been laid to rest. As expected, Harry saw three more markers next to them that had not been there last year. The first was a memorial marker for his godfather, Sirius Black. While there had been no body to recover, Harry thought it was only right that Sirius be honored in death and thought that there was no better place than with his best friends.

That made it an easy choice to add Remus and Tonks to their family plot as well. Now, the Marauders, the ones that hadn't defected to Voldemort's side anyway, all laid together with their loved ones. Just a few weeks after the Battle, Harry had asked Andromeda if she had any plans on where she would like Tonks' body interred. When Andromeda admitted that she had no plans, Harry suggested this: a way to remain with Remus and the Order of the Phoenix.

Andromeda had agreed immediately.

Now, each of the markers had a small Phoenix carved into the stone just above their names, indicating their service to the Order of the Phoenix. Harry thought that it was the least that could be done to recognize each of them for their sacrifice.

For nearly half an hour, Harry simply stood over the graves in silence, thinking about all of the things that had happened since the last time he had been in that spot. Life had certainly turned on end since then. The days after his excursion with Hermione into Godric's Hollow had been some of the worst of his entire life. The trip had been a disaster with Harry nearly being killed by Voldemort's stupid pet snake and Hermione accidentally blasting Harry's wand in half.

Not to mention the fact that there hadn't been a Horcrux in Godric's Hollow at all.

Things weren't perfect now. Harry still had trouble sleeping some nights, the memories and faces of those long gone haunting him until the wee hours of the morning. His relationship with Ron, while improving, had certainly been better. All that didn't even include the renewed threat of the Death Eaters.

Still, life _was_ better, there was no doubt about that.

"Merry Christmas everyone." Harry whispered. "I wish you could be here but I know that you're at peace. Tonks, Remus: you'll be happy to know that Teddy is perfectly happy and healthy. While I know next to nothing about children, he seems to be very energetic and quite the troublemaker, just like his parents."

"Sirius, you'll be pleased to know that I've taken the liberty of almost completely renovating Grimmauld Place. Only about half of the original house remains and I intend to tear that down too. In fact, I'll likely be in a position to destroy the Black family tapestry, which I'm certain that you'll be heartbroken over."

Harry chuckled at the thought of Sirius' reaction to learning that his mother's prized tapestry would go up in smoke. Knowing Sirius, he would have been right there alongside Harry, helping him destroy it.

"Mum, Dad: I still miss you. Even though I never really go the chance to know you, I can't help but wonder what our lives would have been like if you had survived. I know the world would probably be worse off but maybe we would have been happy. But you don't want that, I know. To be honest, things are about as good as I can remember. School is going well and I'll start teaching next year."

"But there's still someone out there. There's always someone out there." Harry said, his voice grating slightly. "I know that I won't ever be normal. For as long as I live, my life will be different. I know that and, to be honest, I'm not sure I would ever know what to do with myself if things were normal. But I would like to try it, at least for a little bit, just once."

With a twist of his wand, Harry conjured five wreaths, each made of lilies and placed them on each headstone.

"I'm thankful for each of you." Harry finally said. "Without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. Merry Christmas. I'll see you next year."

Harry's next stop was Diagon Alley. He needed to pick up a few things including his Christmas gifts for Hermione and The Weasleys. The items had already been purchased and were waiting with Tom at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry went to the bar of the dingy pub and collected the items from Tom, thanking him for holding them as he turned to leave.

However, as Harry started the process of Apparition, he noticed someone sitting in the far corner of the pub, someone that he recognized. In fact, someone that was one of his closest friends. Stopping himself from leaving the bar, Harry walked over to the corner table, bags in town, where he sat down next to an oblivious Luna Lovegood.

"Luna?" Harry said as he sat down. "Luna, what are you doing here?"

For a few moments, Luna didn't even acknowledge Harry's presence. When she did, she turned and looked at him with the same vacant expression she had been using to try and bore a hole into the far wall. It took another second for Luna to realize that the person she was looking at was someone that she knew, breaking into an entirely unbelievable smile.

"Harry!" Luna said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I just asked you the same thing."

"You did?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, I did."

"Well, I'm here." Luna replied. "Which you know because you're sitting here and so am I."

"Yes, Luna."

"I was here because I was at home and I decided I didn't want to be at home anymore. So I came here."

"Do you have any family to spend time with today?"

Immediately, Harry could tell that Luna didn't want to answer his question. Rather than look at Harry, her eyes wandered the room, catching the eye of everyone in the room other than Harry.

"Luna?"

Luna didn't answer right away. Instead, she crossed her arms before placing her head on the table. When she did finally speak, it wasn't to answer his question.

"I don't know what to do anymore." Luna admitted, her voice still carrying the airy tone that Harry had remembered from Luna. But for the first time since the memorial service, Harry realized just how different Luna was from what he expected from Luna, what everyone expected from her. For years, it had seemed like Luna had lived in another world where the troubles and problems of their world didn't seem to bother her.

But since the Battle and the death of her father, Luna had clearly become a part of their world. While she covered that by wearing weird jewelry and talking in that same tone of voice that had become her staple of the years, there was no doubt that Luna had changed, maybe more than anyone else Harry knew.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I don't know who I am anymore." Luna said. "I've known that I was different for a long time. But Daddy told me that the world just didn't understand me. They didn't understand us. For years, especially after Mother died, I believed him. But then I received this."

Luna pulled a rather official looking piece of paper from her bag and handed it to Harry, which he read quickly. It was her father's will. Not surprisingly, he granted everything, including his ownership stake in _The Quibbler_ to Luna.

"I knew that one day this would happen but I thought that I would have years before I needed to worry about it. I got that letter at the beginning of December. _The Quibbler_ is mine."

"That's great, isn't it?" Harry asked. "You can continue to write the stories that Xenophilius would have wanted people to know about."

"That's the thing. I can't do it."

"What? Why not?"

Luna looked at Harry as if she was ready to break. "Because I know that he was lying."

For years, the question that surrounded Luna Lovegood, typically posed by Hermione, was how much Luna believed of the stories that her father told. To the rest of the world, they were just that: stories. While Harry had a hard time outright dismissing the stories, considering that he lived in a world where dragons and giants were real, he still thought that some of the tales that Luna had told, all of which had originally come from her father, had been a little too outlandish to believe.

"You're sure?" Harry asked. Instead of responding with words, Luna gave Harry a scathing look that reminded Harry ever so slightly of Hermione. But the look only lasted a few moments before Luna broke again.

"Do you know when Daddy started publishing _The Quibbler?"_

"No."

"He started in June of 1991."

"Is that important?"

"My mother died in February of 1991." Luna said. "She was a wonderful woman, always tinkering with something or trying some new variation of old spells. Nothing was ever good enough for her. Everything could always be improved."

"Honestly, it made her hard to be around sometimes. But there was never any doubt that she loved Daddy and me. One day, she went into her office. She had been in there about an hour when there was suddenly this giant explosion. Moments later, a rush of wind billowed through the house. I was standing in the door of my room, trying to brace myself in the door frame, when my mother came flying down the hall. She was reaching out, trying to grab everything within arm's reach, but it was no good."

"At the end of the hallway, there was a window. It was beautiful, glass floor to ceiling. My mother loved sitting there and reading or just watching out the window. She hit that window at full speed, shattering it. Daddy found her lying on the front lawn with more cuts from the glass than he could count and a dozen broken bones. He did his best to Heal her but it was too late."

"Whatever magic she had been experimenting with ended up causing the house to collapse in on itself. Eventually, Daddy had a new one built in the shape of rook. Mother loved chess, you see."

"Anyway, she died in February and I was so lost, so sad for months. Until Daddy started 'discovering' these creatures, that is. Then, he and I would go searching all over Europe for these creatures. We never found them, of course. But Daddy had a plan for that. He would make up these ridiculous stories about how the Ministry of Magic had been hiding things from us for years. It became our secret, our quest to root out the corruption of the Ministry and expose the world for what it really was."

"It was all a lie." Luna finally said as Harry noticed something sticking out of the corner of Luna's bag. It was a copy of _The Quibbler_.

The last copy, in fact.

Harry pulled the magazine from her bag and looked at the front cover, which had Harry's face front and center with the byline "HARRY POTTER: PEOPLE'S CHAMPION" in bold letters across the bottom of the page. It was dated the day before Harry, Ron and Hermione visited Xenophilius at his home.

"They were not a lie." Harry said strongly.

"How can you say that?" Luna asked. "He spent years making up all of these stories. People thought that he was crazy. They thought he was nuts. But he wasn't like that before Mother died. He chose to be like that. He chose to do that to make me happy."

"That's why it isn't a lie." Harry repeated. "Luna, your father sacrificed everything for you. He would have given up me or Ron or Hermione. Hell, he would have given up the Queen herself to get you home. He loved you more than life itself. This is a man who literally created a magazine full of outrageous stories for his daughter so that she could get through the tragic loss of her mother. Who wouldn't want that kind of person as a father?"

"But they were all false, imagined. The stories were made up."

"To everyone else, sure, they were made up. But he didn't write these stories for me. He didn't write those stories for himself even. He wrote them for you, Luna. Every issue of this magazine, the thing that got your father in trouble in the first place, was for you. He did it all for you."

"But I didn't want that." Luna said, her voice pleading gently. "I don't want that. I just want him back."

Luna's head fell onto Harry as she sobbed on his shoulder, mourning for her father all these months later.

"I know. Trust me, I know. I would give anything to have my family or Sirius or any of them back but that's not how it works." Harry said. "During the last year of his life, your father dedicated _The Quibbler_ to telling the truth, even when no one else would. He stopped telling those stories about imaginary creatures and told stories exposing the Ministry for what it was."

"I know. I wish he had stuck to imaginary creatures and Rotfang Rebellions."

"But he wrote those stories for you, Luna. He wanted you to know that he valued the truth. He valued bravery and standing up for those that couldn't stand up for themselves. I don't know whether he ever said these things to you but these articles speak for themselves. These are the lessons that he wanted to pass on to you. You'll have these from your father forever, Luna. I only wish I had something like this from my parents."

Luna took a second to absorb what Harry had said. Finally, she looked back at Harry, a look of strange determination on her face.

"I think...I think I want to reopen _The Quibbler."_

"Really?" Harry said, surprised at how quickly she had changed her mind.

"But I'll make it bigger than Daddy could have ever dreamed." Luna said, her eyes wide with the possibilities of the future. "We'll tell the truth, even when it could get us in trouble. We'll include a corner for stories about Nargles or whatever other imaginary creature we want."

"I'm sure your father would be proud of you, Luna, regardless of what you choose to do." Harry said. "But I think it's a good way to honor him."

"Me too." Luna said and for the first time that Christmas morning, she looked something close to happy.

"Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" Harry asked.

"Not really. I'll probably go get dinner somewhere tonight before heading home."

"Well, why don't you spend Christmas was me? I'm going to The Burrow for lunch with the Weasleys. You should join us."

"I don't want to impose." Luna said nervously.

"You won't be. You can be my Christmas date."

"Will anyone else have a Christmas date?"

"I doubt it. But then we've always been a little weird, haven't we?" Harry said, causing Luna to snort loudly. Several of the other patrons looked their direction. At first, they seemed to be judging Luna harshly for her outburst.

Then they saw Harry and suddenly, they all turned back to their meals.

On the rarest of occasions, being Harry Potter had its advantages.

"I would love to go with you, Harry."

"Then let's go."

After they settled up with Tom, Harry and Luna Apparated to The Burrow, landing under the tree where Fred had been buried. They stopped for a moment to pay their respects to Fred before turning to go into the house. However, before they could get inside the house, Ginny came out the back door and intercepted them.

"Luna!" Ginny said, giving her oldest friend a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was sitting-"

"She's my Christmas date." Harry said nervously. Thankfully, Ginny seemed alright with the arrangement. "I told you I wasn't going to be alone for Christmas."

"So you did." Ginny smiled. "Luna, can I talk to Harry for a moment?"

"Sure." Luna replied before turning to Harry. "See you inside."

Harry and Ginny watched as Luna walked through the back door of the house before Ginny turned to Harry.

"Christmas date?"

"She's really struggling." Harry whispered. "First Christmas without Xenophilius."

"Same here. Mum's been on edge all day long." Ginny replied. "That's part of the reason that I wanted to catch you before you walked in."

"You didn't think to warn Luna?"

"Luna doesn't always notice those kind of things."

"I'm not so certain that's true any longer." Harry replied before he noticed that Ginny wasn't leading him back into the house. "I'm assuming there was something else you wanted to talk about."

Ginny nodded. "Neville broke up with me this morning."

"Christmas morning?"

"Well, I should say that we broke up with each other." Ginny said, correcting herself. "I went over to exchange gifts with him this morning and I think we could both tell just how awkward things were. He told me that he had been considering doing it for a couple of weeks now."

"Why?"

"Pretty much the same reasons I gave you. We're still friends but we just knew that we weren't what we wanted from each other."

"Still seems a bit odd to break up on Christmas morning." Harry said, fighting to keep his voice from sounding too hopeful. While he assumed that Ginny was interested in him, he didn't want to presume too much.

"I suppose but we got together in the middle of an occupation of our school where we literally spent months hiding from the staff. Not exactly the most normal of starts."

"Not exactly, no." Harry replied. "So how are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Ginny said. "Even though I knew it was coming, it's still sad, you know? But we tried and that's all we can say."

"Yeah." Harry said.

"So Luna, huh?" Ginny said, changing the subject abruptly.

"There's nothing there." Harry assured her. "I've just been in her shoes before. I couldn't let her spend Christmas alone."

Ginny stepped towards Harry, grabbing the tie around his neck to pull him closer to her.

"You're such the gentleman." Ginny said. "Some people find that kind of nobility attractive."

"Some people, huh?" Harry said, his face just inches away from Ginny's and getting closer by the second.

"Yeah. Some people." Ginny said. She was so close to Harry now that he couldn't see the bottom half of her face as it was covered by his nose. Harry closed his eyes, ready for Ginny to make her move.

"Get in here, you two!"

Immediately, the charm between the two of them was broken as they jumped away from each other. Harry saw that Mr. Weasley had stuck his head out of the back door to yell at them before closing the door again behind him.

Harry looked back at Ginny, whose face was red and who seemed on the verge of rage. Still, when she looked back at him, he knew that the moment, whatever it was, had passed.

"Well, we should probably get inside." Ginny said despondently.

"Probably."

Despite Ginny's warnings about her mood, Molly largely kept her composure for the rest of the evening. In fact, the only real tears of sadness occurred as the entire family sat down for dinner. Just before everyone started digging in, Arthur stood, a glass in hand.

"Before we start, I would like to say a few words. This year has...not been an easy one. Not just for us, either. Everyone in this room has sacrificed and struggled through all of the terrible things that have happened. Unfortunately, not everyone made it."

Arthur looked around the room, making sure that he looked to every person in the room as he spoke.

"I miss Fred every single day. At least once a day, a memory of my boy flashes in my mind and for the next few minutes, I can't work, I can't think, I can't do anything. All I can do is sit there and think about just how much I miss my son. But on the days where I am at my lowest, on the days where I wonder how I can go on, I am reminded that I see Fred every day. I see Fred in Bill's curiosity and Charlie's commitment. I see it in Percy's ambition, Ron's righteous temper and Ginny's spontaneity."

"Most obviously, I see it in George. When the two of you were born, your mother and I, already the parents of three children, were terrified of having twins. Then, they grew to be two years old and we knew true terror." Arthur said, generating a round of laughter from the room.

"But we also knew joy. So much joy. While I don't think I've ever been angrier at any of my children, I know that Fred and George also provided me with the most moments of laughter. I see Fred in you, George, and not just in how you look. I see him in your heart and in your soul. You could have given up after the Battle. You could have given up after Fred's death. But you didn't. You have been an inspiration to our family and to everyone around you in the past few months."

"I know that if Fred were here, he would tell all of you just how proud of you he was."

"Sure, then he'd turned Ginny's toothbrush into a snake or something." Charlie replied.

"Not at all." Ginny countered. "I was the accomplice. It would have been Ron or Percy's toothbrush."

"Too true." Percy replied, almost shuttering from the idea.

Harry watched all of this unfold with a smile on his face. While it still broke his heart that he would never get to see another Fred and George mess around, this family, through all of their heartbreak, still managed to stand strong. While everyone in the room, including Percy's new girlfriend (whose name Harry couldn't remember), had tears in their eyes, Harry knew that even these tears weren't of real sadness.

Certainly, they missed Fred. Harry knew how much he missed Fred and he wasn't actually Fred's brother. But these tears bonded the Weasleys together, reminding them of all the good times they had with Fred around. It also let them know that they hadn't been broken by the events of the past year and that more good times were on their way.

Which is exactly what ended up happening after dinner. First, gifts were opened. Harry received two new pairs of glasses from Ginny. The first was a relatively standard black frame set but squared around his eyes rather than the round he had worn for years. The second pair were bright red and had lightning bolts going down the arms of the frames. Immediately, Harry looked up at Ginny and had to fight the urge to race across the room and kiss her. He knew that sooner or later, he would give in to that urge if they continued down the path they were currently on.

Hermione had bought Harry a set of ruby cufflinks with the Gryffindor lion on them while Molly and Arthur gifted Harry a photo of the entire Weasley family plus Harry on his birthday the previous year. Bill and Fleur had gotten Harry a set of quills that never ran out of ink, meaning that he didn't have carry inkwells in his bag anymore.

Despite the fact that she hadn't know that she would be attending Christmas with Harry, Luna had a gift for him: a signed copy of Ludo Bagman's book about the Triwizard Tournament. The book had just come out a week earlier and had received terrible reviews, mostly because it was almost completely false. Apparently, in Bagman's book, he had been present inside the maze, protecting Harry as he went through.

Somehow, Luna had managed to track Bagman down and get him to sign a copy. While it was an incredibly strange gift, Harry loved it. If nothing else, he was certain the book would be good for a laugh.

But the best gift that Harry had received that Christmas was from George himself. The gift was small, just the size of a postcard. When Harry opened it, he saw an obsidian plaque, one that Harry seemed to remember but from where he couldn't exactly remember.

That question was answered when Harry turned it over and read what was inscribed on the front.

 _Harry James Potter  
Order of Merlin, First Class_

 _For Outstanding Bravery in the face of Overwhelming Odds_

 _Granted on December 25, 1998 by Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt_

Harry looked up at George, who had come to stand next to Harry. There were tears in his eyes and yet a smile on his face.

"Fred and I joked about a lot of things. But one of the things that Fred was always serious about was how much he respected you, especially after Umbridge. You would come back from those detentions and your hand would just be dripping blood and you wouldn't say a thing. It was clear to everyone that you were in pain and yet you never once protested. You fought through the pain and did your work and brought about Dumbledore's Army with Ron and Hermione's prodding."

"Just after Dumbledore's death, Fred and I were talking one night and somehow, we got around to talking about you. That night, Fred said something I'll never forget."

"The odds that Harry beats Voldemort are low and the odds that he beats them and lives are even lower. But you know what amazes me about him? Harry probably knows that and yet it doesn't seem to slow him down at all. For anyone else, the likely chance that they were going to die would send them running the opposite direction. But Harry looks at the odds and says 'Fuck it' and then charges headfirst into battle. It's why people follow him despite the fact that he doesn't seek followers and it's why I would follow him until the end of the world."

Harry was stunned. He hadn't known that the twins had even considered Harry a worthy conversational topic, let alone that Fred had considered Harry someone to look up to despite the fact that he was younger than they were. As Harry attempted to register this surprise, George took a seat next to Harry.

"It normally takes a year from when you are nominated for the Order of Merlin to actually get a judgement on the award. But I knew what Fred would have wanted for you. He would have wanted the whole world to recognize you for what you gave up and for the people that you inspired along the way."

"I don't need this kind of recognition." Harry said.

"Yes, you do." George replied. "You may not think so but the whole country should stand up on their feet and applaud you for what you did."

Harry didn't know what to say. He nodded his head and held the plaque close.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome, Harry."

Once the rest of the gifts were opened, the festivities shifted from the living room back into the dining room where dessert was served. As everyone grabbed their dessert, they made their way back into the living room where they sat and ate and drank some fine mead and wine (French, of course). At first, the conversation drifted towards work and school. Eventually, the conversation came back around to Fred and George with the Weasley family taking turns performing their favorite pranks, almost all of which ended with wonderful impersonations of Ron's over-the-top reactions.

For hours, they sat in the same room, knowing that it would be months before it would happen again. Harry also knew that they appreciate this time for what it was because Fred's death had proven that no one knew what might happen in the future. Ron had already been thrown into one battle and he wasn't even officially an Auror yet. Charlie worked with dragons and it seemed like Bill's new job at the Ministry was going to send him to Gringotts as a liason. That didn't even include the experiments that George had to run in order to create his products. None of these were safe jobs and it meant that each of them understood just how lucky they were to still have as many of them as there were. Ron, Bill, Ginny, George and Arthur had all suffered various injuries or near death experiences over the last eight years and somehow all managed to live through their ordeals.

As time passed and night turned into early morning, people finally started going home. Percy and his girlfriend (who Harry had learned was named Margaret) were the first to leave just after midnight. Bill and Fleur left next, heading home to Shell Cottage. George and Charlie, who was staying with George in his flat, left just after one in the morning at which point, Arthur and Molly headed up to bed.

This left Harry and Luna with Hermione, Ron and Ginny. While the conversation never managed to make it around to Neville's absence, Harry thought that, based on how everyone was so deftly avoiding discussing the subject, they likely had a guess as to what had happened. Instead, Harry watched as Ron and Ginny engaged in one of the most brutal wizard's chess matches that he had ever seen with Ginny winning, having only three pieces left to Ron's two.

The highlight of the match had been when Ginny's queen, who apparently had a long standing feud with Ron's counterpart, charged the entire length of the board, corner to corner, before taking her scepter and stabbing the other queen with it. She then spent the rest of the game laughing maniacally at the remains of the piece on the board.

If it had been anyone else's piece, there would have been some sort of explanation required. But it was Ginny's and so no one questioned it at all.

At the same time, Luna and Hermione had started discussing what they might be doing when they finished with school. While Luna was holding strong to her desire to reopen _The Quibbler,_ albeit as a slightly more reputable publication, Hermione had more options than any one person needed. Currently, the leader of the pack was a legislative role with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, a fact that surprised exactly no one.

Harry also knew that Hermione's quest for house elf equality would take over her life someday. Although Hermione had a better understanding of the actual desire of house elves themselves, she still believed vehemently that much could be done to improve their working conditions and pay without insulting them, something on which everyone with a soul could agree.

When the clock struck two, Hermione and Ginny (Harry found himself sad that Ginny was leaving them, despite the fact that he lived with her) both turned in, leaving just Harry, Ron and Luna sitting out on the back porch of the Burrow. It was an unseasonably warm evening for December, meaning that while they did have blankets on and the wood stove burning, they were still rather comfortable.

"I hear that McGonagall is going through some hoops to make you a Professor next year." Ron said as he and Harry opened the bottle of Griffin Reserve that Harry had bought Ron for Christmas.

"Well, it's a possibility." Harry admitted. "I suppose she could still open the Charms job to someone else but she seemed ready to give the job to Fleur."

"From what she said, Fleur is hoping that she gets the job. Apparently, she didn't want to do the Defense job but Bill talked her into it."

"Why couldn't he have done it on his own?"

"It's not that. He didn't want to leave Fleur so soon after the war had ended. So the only way he was going to go is if she went with him. I can't imagine being married and trying to be a Professor at Hogwarts."

"It does seem strange that none of our professors minded being alone." Luna replied.

"Not all of them were alone." Harry said.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked.

"Well, some of the Professors were married. I know that Sinistra and Vector are both married."

"Really?" Ron asked. "How do you know that?"

"I've heard Minerva talking about it. It's why we never saw them on weekend duty. They went home to see their families."

"Weird." Ron said. "You know what else is weird? You calling McGonagall by her first name."

"It's less weird now than it used to be." Harry admitted. "What's really weird is the fact that I'm going to be a professor in less than six months."

"It is a bit strange." Ron replied. "Do you remember how often we would skip homework until the last minute?"

"I hardly remember an assignment that we _didn't_ do that."

"Even with Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Luna asked.

"Especially with Defense." Harry replied. "It's always been the easiest class for me so I would typically do my homework about an hour before class."

"And you still ended up with the best grade in the class." Luna said, rolling her eyes.

"Which only managed to infuriate Hermione even more." Ron added. "I thought she was going to lose her mind the first time that Harry beat her on a test."

"It was second year. Despite the fact that we had Lockhart teaching us and I did almost none of our assignments on time, I still managed a higher score than her on our winter exam."

"Wow." Luna replied.

"She didn't talk to Harry for a week." Ron added. "It was the only time other than the Firebolt that I ever saw Hermione that angry at you."

"Thankfully, I bombed a Potions exam immediately after break. Once she saw that she managed to double my score, she relaxed a bit."

Ron and Luna both burst into laughter, Ron nearly falling off his chair as they laughed about things that seemed to matter more when you're twelve years old. Harry certainly still believed that school was important, despite his terrible history in the classroom, but there were things now that Harry realized were so much more important than school.

Moments like this, for example. It had been months since Harry had spent time with Ron where they hadn't been yelling at each other. The fact that they were able to sit on the back porch, share a drink and tell old stories about how stupid they were in school was certainly progress.

They may not have been baring their souls to each other, but it was something.

It took until nearly four in the morning before Harry finally decided to leave and only because Luna had passed out in her chair in the middle of a sentence. Picking Luna up out of her chair, Harry whispered a quick goodbye to Ron before turning in place, Apparating the pair of them to Luna's front lawn. Despite the fact that a good portion of the house had been blown apart during their escape, Harry couldn't see much evidence of that event. In fact, the only room that Harry had noticed any lasting damage had been Xenophilius' old study where the explosion had occurred. Not surprisingly, it didn't look like anything had been touched in that room, a memorial of sorts to her father.

Somehow, Luna managed to sleep through the entire ordeal of Harry Apparating them to the house and then carrying her up the stairs to her room. At least until Harry set her down on her bed, where Luna woke up almost immediately. For a second, she looked around her room, obviously confused by where she was. But after a moment or two, she settled in against her pillow, finally understanding where she was and assuming what had happened.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Not long." Harry said. "You fell asleep in the middle of your Greece story."

"That's too bad. That's a good story."

"I'm sure it is." Harry replied with a smile. "I am going to go home. I'm glad you came with me tonight."

"So am I." Luna replied, her head rolling over on her pillow. Harry smirked at how quickly Luna was ready to go back to sleep and turned to leave the room. Before he could leave, however, he heard Luna's voice again.

"Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Are you doing anything for New Year's?"

"I hadn't planned on it." Harry said. "Why?"

"Apparently, The Patils host a party for New Year's every year. Before we left school, Padma asked me if I wanted to go."

"Well, that's good."

"I suppose." Luna said. "It's one of those fancy parties where everyone wears their dress robes and everything. I told her I was flattered but I didn't think I would go."

"What did she say to that?"

"She said that she wasn't taking no for an answer. She also said that I should bring a date."

"Oh." was all that Harry could think to say in response.

"Would you like to go with me? I mean, just as friends, like we did for the Slug Club party."

"Right." Harry said. "I mean, sure, that sounds fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Harry said. Knowing that he sounded uncertain, Harry repeated himself, this time with some confidence in his voice. "Yes, I would love to go with you."

"I figured you wouldn't want to go."

"Why?"

"Well, none of your regular friends will be there. I know how you get around people that you don't know that well."

She wasn't wrong. Harry did have a tendency to shut down around strangers. But it was something that he was working on and this would be a great opportunity. Plus, with their conflicting school schedules, he hadn't gotten to spend much time with Luna over the first few months of the year. This would be another good opportunity to spend some time with his friend.

When Harry told Luna as much, he could see her smile, even though her room was almost pitch black.

"Cho might be there."

"Cho and I are still friends." Harry said, although he could feel something turn slightly in his stomach. "We'll be fine."

"If you say so." Luna replied. "Be here at roughly nine o'clock on the thirty-first. We'll Apparate to Padma's house together."

"Will do." Harry said with a smile. "Now, I'm going to go home before I pass out."

"You do that."

"Good night, Luna."

"G'night, Harry." Luna said, although her words were already starting to slur as she collapsed into her pillow. With a smile on his face, Harry closed Luna's door and walked out the front door, Apparating back to his home. That smile remained on Harry's face as he fell asleep at Grimmauld Place.

He had never had plans for New Year's before.


	27. Twenty-Seven

Harry spent the next week refining his plans for the defense of Hogwarts. Both Ginny and Hermione spent the better part of two days at Grimmauld Place, rather than with their families, as they worked just how to get the students out of the castle while simultaneously defending it. They did their best to consider all situations. What would happen if the Death Eaters attacked from Hogsmeade again? From the Hogwarts Express? From the Forest?

At the same time, there was the largest question regarding the students: Where would they go when they were out of the castle? Assuming the Death Eaters didn't control Hogsmeade, they could go there and then be sent to the Ministry of Magic via the Floo Network. But if the Death Eaters did control Hogsmeade, the easiest path of escape became a trail that lead up into the mountains. This meant a six hour hike through the mountains to the edge of the wards where they could slowly Apparate students away from the school. It would be an incredibly arduous process, one that left too many openings for the Death Eaters to attack.

Thankfully, Harry had a fun evening planned to break up the monotony of working on the school's defense. While he sent the plans to both Minerva and Daphne for their commentary and critique, Harry went to Diagon Alley to purchase a new suit, something that Harry found he quite enjoyed. This time, however, it was at someone else's request. The party, while not formally a Ravenclaw event, was certainly dominated by the House. As a result, it was typically custom to wear Ravenclaw colors.

Since Harry's return to Hogwarts, he had felt less like a Gryffindor than ever before, which was not necessarily a bad thing. While Harry hadn't had much time for socializing over the first half of the year, his classes had forced him to interact with people from every House more frequently. Considering his role as current Head Boy and future Professor, Harry supposed that it was good practice to not specifically favor one House over the other, even if he was going to be the Head of Gryffindor House next year.

That made it easy for Harry to accept Luna's request that Harry wear Ravenclaw colors. When Harry walked into Madame Malkin's, one of the first things that he saw was a blue suit with gold labels, the entire suit made of a material that caused it to shine. Whether that was a Charm or simply the nature of the fabric, Harry couldn't tell. In either case, it was a perfectly ridiculous thing to wear when accompanying Luna Lovegood to a party. Even when Madame Malkin herself had told Harry the suit's outrageous price tag, he had insisted on buying it.

Harry was wearing that suit when he knocked on Luna's front door. Harry waited for a few moments before he knocked again, still to no response. A third time Harry knocked on the door and once again, nothing. Turning the door handle, Harry found that it was unlocked and he pushed the door open, entering the house with his wand out. Thankfully, the house seemed to be in order. There was no sign of a struggle and Harry could hear music playing from upstairs.

Still, he kept his wand at the ready as he climbed the stairs to Luna's room. Once he was on the second floor, Harry looked around the other rooms momentarily, assuring that no one was hiding elsewhere in the house. Once he was certain that he and Luna were alone, he knocked on her bedroom door, where the music was coming from.

Almost immediately, Harry could hear the sound of someone scrambling across the room.

"Luna?"

"Harry!" Luna said through the door. "You know, I'm not really feeling well. You should still go but I think I'll stay home."

Immediately, something about this excuse struck Harry as odd.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Tell Padma I'm sorry but I just don't think I'm going to be able to make it."

"Well, I'm not going to go without you." Harry replied. "I was going as your date."

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you in advance."

"Is everything okay, Luna?"

The fact that Luna didn't answer immediately told Harry everything he needed to know. Harry checked the door handle and once again, found the door to be unlocked.

"Luna, I'm coming in."

"I would prefer you didn't."

"You're acting strange."

"I always act strange."

"This is strange, even for you, Luna." Harry replied. "I'm not leaving until I see you. I'll sit out here in the hallway all night if I have to."

"Why are you so certain that something is wrong?"

"Because you didn't answer me when I asked if everything was alright."

"Well, I'm fine."

"Sure, you are." Harry said as he threw the door open. Immediately, Harry heard Luna shriek from where she had been sitting on the floor. Almost immediately, she tried to climb to the other side of the bed so that Harry couldn't see her. But before she could even get to her feet, she tripped and fell back down to the floor.

Once she was there, Harry could see that she had been crying. Her mascara was running down her face, leaving black, oily streaks from her eyes all the way down to her chin. Her hair wasn't completely done, leaving her in a strange half-dressed/half-mess phase that was not a particularly attractive look.

Harry noticed something in the corner of her room, just over Luna's shoulder. He assumed that it was the dress that Luna had planned on wearing that evening. It was gold with red thread lining the seams of the dress, the colors of Gryffindor House.

"Were you going to wear that tonight?"

"I was." Luna admitted. "I wanted you to wear Ravenclaw colors so I thought it would be neat if I wore Gryffindor colors."

"I'm sure you would have looked amazing in it." Harry said as he sat down next to Luna on the floor. "So, do you want to talk about why you're crying on the floor?"

"Bad hair day?"

Harry laughed. "I'm not going to make you talk about it. But I've never known you to be a particularly emotional person. Yet, I've seen you twice in the last week and you've nearly broken down both times."

"Not necessarily a good look for me, is it?"

"You've looked better." Harry admitted. "What was it that caused it?"

"Bill and Fleur's wedding."

"What?"

"The last time I left the house and got all dressed up like this was Bill and Fleur's wedding. Dad and I went together. It was one of the last times that I saw him happy. After the Ministry went down, Dad got so paranoid, more so than usual anyway."

"But you still had a whole month with him before school started, right?"

"Sort of. We were both home but he wasn't really _here_. He was constantly writing, day and night. Sometimes, I would wake up in the morning and find him at his desk."

"What was he working on?"

"Articles about you, I believe. Things that he could publish once I was away from home. I don't think he ever stopped to consider that they would ever capture me from the train. The day after school started, _The Quibbler_ suddenly stopped posting any articles that weren't about you or Voldemort."

"Your father was responsible for a lot of people having information that they wouldn't have had otherwise."

"I know." Luna said. "He was very brave. But I already missed him. I missed his smile and the way he would wake me up with breakfast every Saturday morning. From the day Voldemort took over the Ministry, all of that was gone."

"So you thought of Bill and Fleur's wedding when you were getting ready tonight?"

Luna nodded in agreement. "The last time I wore a dress like that, Dad was alive and happy. The last time I wore a dress like that, something terrible happened. I just couldn't take it. Everything about it reminded me of him."

"What do you think he would want you to do?"

"Well, I think he would find it silly that I was going to a party at all."

"Do you want to go?" Harry asked.

"Of course. I want to see my friends and...well, not many girls get to take the famous Harry Potter on a date, even as friends."

"Well, so far, my record on dates is not particularly great with about half of them ending in total catastrophe." Harry replied, causing Luna to choke out a laugh. "I think Xenophilius would want you to be happy."

"I know he would."

"I'm not going to force you to go to a party. But I do think that part of getting through these kind of events in our lives is facing them."

"I know."

"It's not going to be an easy evening." Harry said. "You've already got ten different things on your mind that are going to make it hard. But you're going to a safe place with friends and people that know you. People that are likely going through something similar to you."

"What happens if something goes wrong while we're there?"

"If something goes wrong? Then, you're Luna Lovegood, one of the best and brightest witches of her age and a wicked duelist. I pity anyone that dares stand in your way."

"You did."

"Yeah, well, you gave me a better duel than most of Death Eaters have ever managed."

Luna smiled bashfully at Harry. Suddenly, she turned to Harry, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"You're a good friend, Harry."

"So are you." Harry replied. "Now, are we going or do I need to go pick up dinner for the two of us?"

"Oh, we're going." Luna said as she got to her feet. "But I still have to change clothes so I'm kicking you out."

"Fair enough."

Harry went back downstairs and waited for nearly an hour while Luna finished getting ready. However, when Luna came down the stairs, the only thing going through Harry's mind was that his patience had been worth it.

The dress clung to Luna like a second skin, stopping just below her knees. The gold reflected in the light, nearly blinding Harry on more than one occasion. Luna had also done up her hair in a tight bun, pulling all of her long, silver hair away from her neck. The dress, which only had one shoulder strap, accentuated Luna's thin form.

Harry had known that Luna was attractive, if a bit unconventional in the way she presented herself. But Harry had never realized just how beautiful she was until this moment.

"So," Luna said, pausing nervously, "how do I do?"

"Luna, you look amazing." Harry said in amazement.

"I think I look a bit silly but it's a fancy party so I figured I would look the part."

"Mission accomplished." Harry said with a smirk. "Are you trying to get someone to pick you?"

"Harry, I'm going with you. I already got a guy to pick me up."

"That is a good point." Harry replied. This newfound confidence was almost good enough to convince Harry that Luna had recovered from the anxiety and fear that had crippled her just an hour earlier.

Almost being the key word. While she did seem to have a comeback for everything at the moment, Harry could still tell that there was some lingering thoughts in her mind. While she seemed to be digging deeply into her newly discovered abilities in sarcasm and snarkiness, Harry could tell that it was taking quite a bit of effort. Her smile seemed forced, like she had to remind herself to put it on. At the same time, her laugh stopped a few moments too early, convincing no one, not even Luna herself, that she was quite past her fears.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Harry asked again.

"No but you were right. I need to start moving on."

"OK. If you want to go, at any point, you let me know and we'll get out of there."

"Just don't leave me alone and we'll be fine."

"Well, here we go then." Harry said as he offered her his elbow, which she took gladly. Harry stood and waited, expecting the familiar pull of Side-Along Apparition. However, it never came. Harry peaked out of the corner of his eye where he found Luna doing the same towards him. Both of them stood there for a moment, arm in arm, until Harry finally turned to Luna once more.

"Why haven't we gone?" Harry asked.

"Because you haven't taken us." Luna replied

"I don't know where the Patils live."

"Really? You're in the same year as Parvati."

"Yes, but we've never really been good friends." Harry replied. "I've been to your house, Ron's, Hermione's parents once over the summer."

"Don't forget Malfoy's house." Luna said which caused Harry to laugh.

"Ah yes, how could I forget that one?" Harry replied. "Anyway, I've only really spent time with the Weasleys."

"I suppose we needed to keep The Boy Who Lived safe, right?"

"Something like that."

"Well, luckily for you, I've been there before." Luna said. Then, without any warning, Harry felt her turn her body away from Harry, pulling him alongside her. It had been several months since Harry had been forced to Side-Along with anyone and almost immediately, he remembered why he had hated the sensation so much.

After fighting through the desire to throw up or fall down, Harry steadied himself, looking up to see a massive and surprisingly modern home. The house sat on top of a hill that was covered in more than a dozen smaller gardens, each of them perfectly manicured and surprisingly well-lit, considering the time of night. While most magical homes that Harry had seen were exceedingly strange (Luna's home), a collection of ramshackle parts (The Burrow) or gothic-styled mansions (Malfoy Manor), this home was quite different from the home of every other magical home he had ever seen.

Harry would later discover that The Patils were the owners of a series of book distributors that serviced both magical and non-magical customers. This meant that their home had been originally designed by a Muggle but then modified by the Patils to service their magical tastes. It was remarkable that everything could be changed to make it "Muggle safe" when you considered the giant, moving statues in the gardens.

The house featured more glass than steel or concrete with the entire exterior of the first two floors being floor to ceiling sliding glass gave everyone sitting in the living room a panoramic view of the valley below where you see the forest for miles in every direction. While Harry didn't know exactly where they were at, it was clear that they were somewhere near London, as he could see the lights in the distance beyond the forests that seemed to spread out in every direction from the house, keeping the house from being seen by any of their neighbors.

It was arguably one of the most beautiful places that Harry had ever been and he spent six and a half years of his life at Hogwarts.

Harry and Luna approached the house from the bottom of the hill. As they got closer, Harry saw that the party was already in full swing with people all over the property. Even in the massive house, almost the entire first floor was covered with people, making it nearly impossible to get anywhere. In fact, the only place where there seemed to be a path to walk was the impromptu dance floor that had been set up in what appeared to be the dining room.

A group of musicians sat in the corner, playing softly, yet no matter where Harry went, he could hear them just as if he were standing next to them. It was only when they finally left that evening did the music finally disappear.

Harry and Luna wandered through the house, every so often seeing someone that they recognized and stopping to talk. Ernie MacMillan, who like Ron and Neville was just days away from graduating from the Auror Academy, stopped and talked to them for nearly an hour. During that time, Ernie only occasionally took time out from recounting every detail of his training at the Auror Academy to tell Luna how beautiful she looked. While Luna smiled and thanked him every time, Harry could tell that she was slightly bothered by the attention that she was getting from him.

While Ernie was a good guy, he often came on a bit too strong, something that often lead to him creating a terrible first impression. Even Harry had not been impressed with Ernie when they had first met during his second year.

Eventually, Harry made up some excuse to pull Luna away from Ernie, which earned Harry an appreciative squeeze on the arm from his date with a relieved smile to match. They continued to wander the party, eliciting whispers from almost everyone as they walked by. Harry wasn't shocked by this but apparently Luna hadn't considered this possibility.

"They think we're dating, don't they?"

"We did show up to this party together." Harry replied. "You're wearing Gryffindor colors and I'm wearing Ravenclaw colors."

"Merlin, this is going to be annoying, isn't it?"

"You get used to it."

"Oh, I'm used to people talking about me." Luna replied. "I'm just not used to them talking _to_ me."

"Oh, right."

Despite the eyes that were on her from the moment that she walked in the door, Luna never once betrayed any nervousness. The only times that Harry knew that she was dealing with some anxiety were when she would suddenly grab his arm as if she was afraid she was going to sink into the floor.

It happened for the third time just before midnight at which point, Harry made up an excuse for why they had to leave a very dejected Mandy Brocklehurst behind and took Luna outside where she could get some air.

"We can go, Luna." Harry whispered as they took a seat on a bench in the nearest garden to the house. "We've been here for a couple hours already. There's no sense in putting on an act for all of these people."

"Who said I'm putting on the act for them?" Luna replied.

"If not for them, then who?" Harry asked. Luna's response was a pointed look in his direction, which gave Harry his answer. "Why?"

"Because you agreed to come in the first place." Luna replied. "You didn't have to do that. I know that these kind of things aren't really enjoyable for you."

"They aren't as bad as they used to be." Harry said. "For years, I was frequently one of the least popular people in the room. I would rather have everyone want to talk to me than everyone want to ignore me."

"It certainly is a better feeling." Luna agreed. Immediately, Harry realized what he had said.

"Luna, I'm sorry, I di-"

"You don't need to apologize." Luna said softly. "I know that I'm not for everyone. It's just part of my charm."

"Right." Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief as he did. At that moment, Harry saw Parvati enter the garden, making a beeline for them. Harry waved and encouraged Parvati to come over and join them.

"I had heard rumors that Luna Lovegood had snagged a date for tonight." Parvati said with a smile before turning to Harry. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Surprise?" Harry replied. "In all honesty, I didn't think it would make a difference to you whether I was here or not."

"Things change, Harry." Parvati said. "I'm very happy you're here."

"So am I. We've had a good time."

"Leaving already? It's not even midnight."

"Not leaving." Luna replied. "Harry just needed to get some air."

Harry chuckled at Luna's audacity which had caused Parvati to look at Harry in concern.

"It's a lot of people in there." Harry replied stupidly.

"That it is." Parvati agreed. "You should come back inside. It's almost midnight. Once the New Year hits, the party tends to clear out pretty quickly."

"Really? Why?" Luna asked. Harry and Parvati, both knowing the answer, looked at each other, clearly wanting the other to answer.

Finally, it was Luna who bailed them out.

"I know why." Luna said with a smirk. "I may be a little barmy but I still know what you use a broom cupboard for."

"Right." Harry said. Harry found that he appreciated Luna's new penchant for joking around but it also kept him on his toes more than he liked. He had spent two years getting used to the old Luna.

Now, he would have to get used to the new one.

"Come on, let's go back inside." Parvati said. "We're getting ready for the big bang!"

"The big bang? Is that some kind of joke?" Harry asked.

"Parvati's father sets off fireworks at midnight." Luna replied with a smirk.

"Oh."

The fireworks display started a few minutes before midnight. They were certainly magnificent. Although Harry doubted that he would ever see a display better than the one the Weasleys left Hogwarts with, this one was amazing with several giant butterflies and dragons that flew around the grounds for nearly an hour after the display was over.

The display reached its zenith right at midnight with over a dozen clocks, all of them synchronized, appeared in the sky, counting down the last seconds to minute as the crowd shouted along with them.

Just as the clock hit midnight, Harry looked around and saw that everyone seemed to have grabbed the person closest to them and kissed them. Harry turned to ask Luna if this was some kind of magical New Year's tradition when he felt Luna's lips on his.

When they separated, Harry found that he couldn't think of anything to say. Instead, he just stared at Luna, his mouth twisted in confusion.

"It's a tradition to kiss your date on New Year's." Luna explained.

"Oh."

"It's not a big deal, Harry." Luna added. "Don't think that I'm expecting you to propose to me or anything?"

"Right."

"Although I wouldn't say no."

"What?" Harry said, feeling like he was being dragged behind a broom, never to catch up.

"Kidding." Luna said as she took Harry by the hand, pulling him through the crowd back towards the house. True enough to Parvati's prediction, by the time they got to the house, the number of people present at already started to dwindle, making it far easier to move through the crowds. Inside the house, the dance floor had been removed and the living room returned to its normal state. As they got closer to the living room, Harry noticed a few faces that he hadn't recognized all night.

The first were some of his former Quidditch teammates Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson. Angelina was sitting next to someone that Harry didn't recognize, although their proximity to each other suggested that he was her date. Meanwhile, Katie sat next to her fiance, former Quidditch announcer Lee Jordan.

"I see you finally decided to attend one of our reunions."

Harry turned around to see Oliver Wood, drink in hand, smiling as he observed the scene in front of him.

"What reunion?"

"Every year since I left Hogwarts, the team has gotten together on New Year's."

"I never knew about that." Harry admitted.

"Well, Fred and George said that you weren't really allowed to leave The Burrow."

"Pretty much." Harry said. "Where's Alicia and George?"

"Right here." Alicia said, her voice coming from an adjacent hallway. Seconds later, she turned the corner, dragging George behind her. "Good to see you, Harry."

"It's been awhile." Harry replied. "Well, July isn't that long I suppose."

"Not too long." Alicia said, hugging Harry softly before turning to Luna. "Merlin, Luna, you look wonderful."

"Thanks." Luna said quietly. Luna didn't particularly know Alicia but, like the rest of the people their age, Alicia knew of Luna Lovegood, both for her strange behavior and her exploits in assisting Harry Potter.

Harry and Luna followed Oliver and Alicia as they made their way over to the rest of the team. Almost immediately, Harry could tell that Luna wasn't particularly comfortable with their company.

"Do you want to leave?" Harry whispered in her ear.

"And go where?" Luna asked, lowering her voice to a sultry growl that only Harry could hear, which caused the hairs on his arms to raise on end. Thankfully, the wink that accompanied it let Luna know that she was joking.

"I'm fine." Luna added. "I just don't know anyone other than George that well."

"They're good people."

"I know. That's why we're staying."

For the next hour, Harry and Luna sat and listened as the rest of the team updated Harry on what they had been doing while he was in school. Oliver remained at Puddlemore United and had been granted the starting Keeper job last season. He told everyone how he knew, through some incredibly secret sources, that the United were about to be put up for sale.

As he said this, he kept making extreme amounts of eye contact with both Harry and George. Considering they were likely the two wealthiest people at the party, possibly even wealthier than the Patils themselves, it made sense. There had been rumors for months that Harry and George were considering purchasing a Quidditch club, typically the Chudley Cannons.

Harry wondered if these rumors weren't started by Ron as a way to get Harry to purchase his favorite team.

Katie Bell finally had news to report in her never ending quest to become a professional Quidditch player as well. Within the last two weeks, Katie had signed a reserve contract with the Falmouth Falcons. She would be training as both a Chaser and Seeker, although it was likely going to be another couple of years before she was given any playing time.

Angelina proudly reported that she had been hired as the manager of Wigtown Wanderers. While Wigtown had been the worst team in the league (not including the permanently putrid Chudley Cannons) for over a decade now, Angelina's hiring made her only the fourth woman to be hired as a team manager and the youngest person hired to the position by nearly six years in the league's history. Her first action as manager had been to hire Alicia as one of her scouts.

Harry sat and watched everyone deliver their updates, for a moment feeling a bit like a child among the others. George owned one of the largest magical businesses in the country, which was expanding almost every week. Oliver, Angelina, Katie and Alicia had all made Quidditch a priority from the moment they left school and all of them had achieved some level of success with Angelina and Oliver clearly leading the pack.

But as Harry considered all that he had accomplished _since_ The Battle of Hogwarts, he felt much better. In six months, Harry would be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and Deputy Headmaster. At the same time, he had been granted the authority by the Ministry of Magic to restructure the Auror Academy and Defense curriculum to better mesh with each other. This, in addition to his position within the Wizengamot, meant that Harry was a major player at the Ministry already and that didn't even consider any thoughts Harry had for his political future, something he was going to have to reconcile sooner rather than later.

Not bad for what would be a nineteen year old child prodigy. That thought alone made Harry realize that he actually had a plan.

For the first time in his life, Harry had a plan for how he wanted to move forward. He would finish his classwork in June. Then, he would immediately begin working on lesson planning for his Defense classes while he worked with the Ministry to retool its Auror Academy. At the same time, he would begin supporting wholesale changes of Ministry policy using his direct position in the Ministry of Magic and the influence that he wielded simply by being Harry Potter.

Who knew what the future would bring? In five years, Harry could be anything he wanted to be. He could be the majority owner of a Quidditch team, the Headmaster of Hogwarts (assuming Minerva retired), or even a high-ranking Ministry official, if that was something that he wanted to do. For years, Harry had avoided the bureaucracy of the Ministry but lately, he found that the machinations of the Ministry of Magic, and the change that he could enact there, were something that interested him.

He didn't know if it was something that he wanted to do forever but it was definitely a consideration for his future.

It was sometime after four in the morning, after hours of idle conversation, when George finally stood up, a class in his hand.

"I am glad that I was able to see you all again this year." George said, his voice light but barely holding back a hint of emotion that threatened to break free. "For years, we've been missing one of our numbers when we met. Now, we'll always be missing one. Harry, I'm glad you were able to be here this year. It's just too bad we never got the opportunity to be a complete team one more time."

"To Fred." Harry said as he stood and raised his glass. Everyone else in the room followed Harry's example and toasted to their fallen teammate. With that done, the Gryffindor Quidditch team broke apart once again. But Harry had found himself part of a great tradition. Every New Year's for the next several decades, The Gryffindor Quidditch team gathered once again to toast their fallen teammate and share their lives. While Harry didn't remain particularly close with any of them but George over the years, they would always have one night a year to be a team again.

Harry and Luna arrived back at her house, both of them barely awake. Still, Harry had enough energy to open the door for Luna and escort her back to her room.

"I had a good time tonight." Luna said. "I'm glad you made me go."

"I'm glad I went with you." Harry replied. "Did you know about the Quidditch team?"

"They had met there a couple of years ago." Luna replied. "But they don't go every year. Sometimes, they go to the party at Longbottom Manor and other years, I've heard they just go to the Three Broomsticks."

"But you hoped they would be there. That's why you invited me."

"I invited you because I wanted to spend more time with you. That was just a bonus." Luna countered. "Now, I need to go to sleep. I'll see you back at school."

"Right." Harry said with a grin before taking Luna's hand in his and raising it up to his lips, kissing it gently. "Sleep tight."

"Same to you, Prince Charming."

Harry returned to Grimmauld Place, landing in the office on the first floor. Once he hit the ground, he quickly grabbed a quill and wrote a letter to Hermione that he sent with Ginny's owl. As he finished up, Harry heard the door to the office open and he turned to see Ginny standing in the doorway.

"What are you still doing awake?" Harry asked.

"Couldn't sleep. It's been a quiet day here." Ginny replied as he saw the almost empty bottle in her hand.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm lonely." Ginny admitted. "I'm a social creature, Harry. You were off with Luna and Hermione is back with her parents until we go back to school."

"We all have other things we do." Harry said as he stepped out from behind his desk. When he reached Ginny, she grabbed hold of his lapel and he could almost instantly tell that she had been drinking quite a bit. This was based almost entirely on the smell of alcohol on her breath but the fact that she barely seemed capable of holding herself up was another strong clue.

"Let's get you to bed." Harry said as he put his arm around Ginny and lead her towards the stairs.

"Youthinkyouregettingsometonight?" Ginny asked, her words slurring together. "Idontthinkso."

"Keep walking." Harry said, ignoring Ginny's comment. It took them nearly ten minutes to get her up the stairs. Once they did, Harry held the door to her room open so that she could go in on her own. Ginny walked in the door and, without any regard for Harry's presence in the room, removed her shirt before flopping over on the bed. Immediately, Harry averted his eyes.

"What's the matter, Potter? Don't you think I'm pretty?"

"I think you're drunk." Harry chuckled. "Now get some sleep."

Harry watched as Ginny pulled the blankets back from the bed and climbed underneath them. Seconds later, the rest of her clothes came flying at him, undoubtedly leaving her nude under the blankets.

"Care to join me?" Ginny asked sleepily.

"I think I'll pass tonight." Harry said, knowing that he would enjoy himself if he did. But he had far too much respect for Ginny to do something like that.

"Killjoy." Ginny said as she rolled over. Harry rolled his eyes before turning to leave the room. Just as Harry closed the door, he heard his name come from Ginny. Despite the exhaustion that he was now starting to feel, Harry opened the door.

Ginny was staring up at him, her head the only thing not hidden by the blankets on the bed.

"Can you stay with me?"

"No." Harry said. "You know what happened the last time I stayed with you."

Ginny chuckled that kind of laugh that only drunk people can perform. "You fucked me."

"Something like that." Harry said, memories of Ginny on top of him suddenly flashing in his mind.

"Well, I don't have to fuck you but I want you to stay with me." Ginny said, repeating her request. "You could sit in the chair. Until I fall asleep."

Ginny was pointing at the chair that was next to her bed, a rather large and plushy armchair that Harry knew was quite comfortable. He knew that if he sat down in that chair, he was likely falling asleep. Still, he did as she asked, sitting in the chair next to her. Almost the moment he sat down, Ginny's hand flew off the side of the bed and grabbed Harry's.

"I love you, Harry." Ginny muttered as she nuzzled into her pillow. Harry was stunned by how casually the words had come out of her mouth. Harry leaned over the side of the bed, watching Ginny as she slept. Something was bothering her. That much was clear. He had never known Ginny to be much of a drinker and definitely not to the point that she was drunk on her own. So, he waited with her until she fell asleep. The problem was that almost immediately after Ginny fell asleep, Harry did the same, his head resting on the side of the bed just next to where he held onto her hand.

The next thing Harry knew, he was being shaken awake. Opening his eyes, he was surprised to see that it was daylight outside and that Hermione was standing next to him, a surprised look on her face.

"What time is it?" Harry growled as he noticed that his hand was still clutching Ginny's. Immediately, he felt the intensity of Hermione's gaze and let it go.

"Almost noon." Hermione said. "Your message said that I was supposed to be here at ten."

"Yeah. Well, I had expected to go to bed earlier than I did."

"And in your own room, I bet?"

"Nothing happened." Harry said as he stood and escorted Hermione from the room, taking care to shut the door without waking Ginny up. "I came home last night from the party and she was awake and very drunk."

"So she just magically ended up naked in her bed with you sitting next to it?"

Harry explained the rest of what happened, careful not to omit any details so that she could understand exactly why Harry had remained. When he was finished, he could tell that Hermione was still frustrated with him but that she understood why he had done what he had done.

"The two of you need to talk and soon."

"Agreed."

After a quick shower, Harry met Hermione in the foyer of Grimmauld Place. It was clear that Hermione, despite normally being an incredibly patient person, was done waiting on Harry.

"Where are we going?"

"Here." Harry said as he held up a key. That key, which had been willed to him by his parents, was the key to his parents' home at Greymoor Tower.

"Really?" Hermione asked. "Who else is going?"

"Just the two of us." Harry replied. "You'll understand why."

With that, Harry took Hermione's hand and then waved his wand over the key, causing it to glow. Turning in place, Harry saw an image of a single house and a tower, which the key had planted in his mind to allow him to Apparate there. Following that image, Harry continued turning until both he and Hermione landed in a marsh somewhere in Devon.

The area that the two of them had landed in was clearly magical. Harry could feel it in the air and the closer they got to the single isolated tower in the middle of the moor, the more he felt it. The tower was as described. It had clearly been the central tower of a castle thousands of years ago. There were also signs of a massive battle that had taken place on this land, still evident to this day. Several large walls stood on their own with the clear signs of Dark magic impressed on the sides while other massive boulders were made out of medieval bricks rather than natural stone.

In the shadow of the tower was a small home. It was relatively new, obviously built sometime in the last century. As Harry walked towards it, he found that he didn't know what to expect. Would he remember having been there before? Would a sudden memory or image of his parents return to him?

Would he remember it at all?

His answer came to him rather quickly. As he crossed the threshold into the house, it was obvious that his parents had, at one time or another, occupied this house with an infant. The house, a modest single story home made of the same bricks as the tower itself, sat on two levels with several interesting features. The first was the fact that once you walked inside the house, the medieval style brick gave way to modern crown molding and lighting. Next on the list of curious features was a fireplace wider and taller than any Harry had ever seen in the front sitting room.

Clearly, this house had been used to transport multiple people via Floo Powder at one time.

But the most interesting thing was something that Harry found on the floor of the living room, the only sign of something that Harry might remember: a toy broomstick. While Harry never remembered riding a toy broomstick as a child, he did remember the letter that he had found in Grimmauld Place from his mother. In it, she had mentioned that Harry had received a toy broomstick from Sirius and that Harry had loved it.

Harry had no doubt that this was the toy broomstick himself.

And yet, as Harry walked through the house, he found it difficult to connect to the house. Nothing in it reminded him of his parents or the life that he might have had. Try as he might to feel otherwise, this was a stranger's home.

The tower, on the other hand, seemed to be a nexus of magical energy. Certain places in the world, places like Diagon Alley and Hogwarts, pulsed with magic in every corner of their structure. But in every instance that Harry had ever encountered, they had all been places with a high magical population day in and day out.

Greymoor Tower hadn't had residents living there in over twenty years and yet, from the moment that Harry and Hermione walked in the doors, he could feel the magic of the place crawling over his skin.

The tower itself was a simple structure. There were six levels to the tower, each with a spiral staircase around the exterior of the room that lead to the next higher level. Almost all of the rooms were filled with books. If Harry had to guess, he was looking at his family's ancestral library. Hermione had to be dragged up the stairs, knowing that there was bound to be something by one of the Peverells buried in the Potter family library.

When Harry reached the top of the tower, he knew that he was in a place that almost every magical historian would beg to see. The room was an office of sorts with parts of laboratory for good measure. There was an entire bookshelf on the far wall, filled with books. But unlike every other book in the Tower, it was clear that these were research journals. While neither Harry or Hermione could confirm that they were from Merlin, they were certainly from a contemporary of the fabled Slytherin wizard.

The top of the tower had no walls. Instead, glass windows that gave a complete view of the marsh surrounding it stood in the place of walls.

"This will be perfect." Harry as he sat down at the desk, looking out of the moors and the Potter family legacy.

"For what?"

"My plan for you." Harry replied.

"For me?"

"That's why I brought you here." Harry said. "I've been thinking a lot about how I can help people. I don't think I'll be a particularly good lawmaker, at least not in terms of the actually process of writing laws. If anything, I've discovered that I'm a relatively decent politician."

"From what I've heard, you are better than decent."

"I'm hoping so." Harry admitted. "Because I think I figured out how I want to help."

"Really? How?"

"I am restarting the Order of the Phoenix."

It was clear, based on the look on Hermione's face, that she did not know what exactly Harry meant.

"Why would we need another secret society?"

"Not a secret society." Harry replied. "A political organization. One designed to orchestrate the kind of change that we want to see at the Ministry of Magic. I've been spending the last few days reading up on the basic history of the Ministry."

"Really?"

"Yes." Harry replied, ignoring the sound of surprise in her voice. "For centuries, Purebloods and the wealthy elite have teamed up to oppress those of 'lesser blood.' In return, the good people of the world have done _nothing._ They've sat back and let people like the Malfoys and the Lestranges take over the Ministry with their pocketbooks."

"So what do you propose we do instead?" Hermione asked. "And what does the Order of the Phoenix have to do with that?"

"The Order of the Phoenix was full of people that believe in the same things that you and I believe. But they were never given the opportunity to truly organize themselves as a force for good." Harry said. "Dumbledore knew that we couldn't fight Voldemort in a conventional war and he knew that we couldn't beat them at the Ministry. So he never tried. He used the Order as a spy network, collecting information so that he could remain one step ahead of the Death Eaters while he waited for me to be ready to take Voldemort down."

"But we have an opportunity that Dumbledore never had. Kingsley is the Minister of Magic. Arthur, Percy are now highly placed inside the Ministry of Magic. Bill and I sit on the Wizengamot as well. Minerva retains control of Hogwarts."

"It's still weird to hear you call her by her first name."

"Ron said the same thing." Harry said with a chuckle. "We can consolidate our power and leverage it into something. A few months back, on the first date that I went on with Cho, she said that I needed to be willing to play the Wizengamot's game if I wanted to get things done. I replied that I didn't want to play the game, I wanted to _change_ it."

"That's what I mean to do with The Order of the Phoenix. With the combined numbers of that and Dumbledore's Army, we would wield a force of people who believe in the same kind of positive change that we want to see. We could change the Ministry from the inside and the outside, making sure that no one like Lucius Malfoy ever had the ability to buy the Ministry for his own personal use again."

"But there will always be money in politics, Harry." Hermione replied. "Plus, what you are suggesting is no better than what the Purebloods have spent decades doing."

"That's not true. The Purebloods were given power from the beginning and they've spent the entirety of magical history holding onto it. Most of their tactics for doing so are illegal. What I am suggesting is entirely legal. When a new Minister of Magic is named, their appointees for the Wizengamot should be Order members. They should hire Department Heads who are Order members."

"But doesn't that just make us the Purebloods? Giving power to one of our own?"

"We didn't get the power through money or intimidation. We will get it because people will realize that people like you are the future."

"People like me?" Hermione asked. "I'm going to start out at the Ministry as a nobody."

"Hermione Jean Granger, there is not a single place in the wizarding world that you can go where you are a nobody. Everyone knows your name and knows what you stand for." Harry said. "It's why you are the perfect person to run The Order of the Phoenix."

Hermione stood in the center of the room, staring at Harry in shock.

"What?"

"I want the Order of the Phoenix to attract the best and brightest. I want people to know that we are an organization to take seriously and one that will fight for everyone, regardless of their wealth, parentage or magical ability. There's no one that I would trust better than you to do that."

"But I can't do this. I'll need a job."

"This would be your job." Harry replied. "This new Order will share the name with the previous Order but it will be my machine and our direction that will get us there. I will pay the salary of anyone who works for the Order out of my own vault until the Order would start making its own funds. We'll run everything out of Greymoor Tower and this would be our office."

Hermione stared at Harry for quite some time in silence, a look of befuddlement on her face.

"Harry, let me get all of this straight: You want to recreate the Order so that you can help influence the Ministry of Magic into changing its laws on the weak and disenfranchised. You'll do this by supporting people for public office, who can put other members of the organization in legal positions of power. For all of this, you are asking for no compensation and you intend to personally pay the salary of anyone who works for the Order. Plus, you are granting me a shared office with you that may or may not have once belonged to Merlin himself. Does that sound about right?"

"Sounds about right to me." Harry replied. "I've always thought that you could change the world, Hermione. I know you don't want to feel like people are handing things to you. But I'm not. I've watched you for almost eight years and I know that putting you in some desk job for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement will be a waste of your abilities. So, I'm taking the chance on you. I think if we do this right, you are the Minister of Magic before the end of the next decade."

"I think both of us will be." Hermione countered before stopping to think for several minutes. It was clear that she was conflicted. She would be accepting money from Harry to support herself, something that he knew would bother her. But, she would also have the ability to direct policy and change within the Ministry on a level that no other twenty year old would ever be given the opportunity to do.

Finally, nearly ten minutes later, she turned to Harry. "I only have one question."

"Which is?"

"Where do I sign up?"


	28. Twenty-Eight

Two days before Harry was set to return to Hogwarts was an important day, but not for Harry himself. It was an important day because it was the graduation ceremony for all the qualified graduates of the Auror Academy. This included Neville and Ernie, as well as the class's highest scoring graduate, Ron Weasley.

Ron had already commented that neither Bill or Percy had been the highest scoring student in their Hogwarts class, which had earned him an eye roll from Bill and Percy threatening to kick him out of their apartment.

The graduation would take place at the Academy itself, the one day every six months that the building was open to the public. The Academy was hidden inside a building that housed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, just across the street from the permanent residence of the British Prime Minister along with several other high ranking Muggle politicians. Years ago, the Academy had been placed there, along with a station of Aurors, to protect the Prime Minister in case of an emergency that involved the magical world. Thankfully, that day had never come but the Academy remained there.

At least, the entrance to it remained at that location. Because when Harry walked in the door of what was supposed to be the Auror Academy, it was clear that the Academy itself wasn't actually in London. Looking out the windows of the gothic-like structure of the building, instead of the city life and close buildings that Harry expected, he only saw forests, trees that reached so high they seemed to touch the clouds.

The building itself reminded him a bit of Hogwarts, despite the fact that it had clearly been built after the school. It was also much smaller with one great central area that served as a communal eating area and practical instruction space. Four hallways connected to this main area, each running about one hundred meters in length with classrooms on either side.

According to Ron, there was also an outdoor obstacle course and dueling platform but they never had the opportunity to see that.

The central room had been redesigned as an auditorium of sorts today with hundreds of chairs lined up in the center of the room, facing a stage set up at the far end. The graduating candidates sat on a platform on top of the stage, putting them far higher than anyone else in the room.

In front of them sat a "who's who" of the most influential members of the Ministry of Magic. Seated in the middle was Kingsley, who had barely had time to breathe due to the number of old colleagues that had approached him prior to the ceremony. On either side of the Minister of Magic was Gawain Robards and Meredith Breckinridge.

Harry also noticed her Senior Adviser sitting in the front row.

The last person on the stage was someone that Harry didn't recognize. Thankfully, she was the first person to stand up and speak during the ceremony. She was a short, stocky woman with horned-rimmed glasses that seemed just a bit too large for her face. Her robes were a dark red color, the color of the Aurors, but her robes were slightly different. Instead of the solid red, her robes had a blue stripe down the center and she wore a white stoll around her shoulders.

Harry guessed that it had something to do with her relationship to the Academy rather than being a full-time Auror.

She appeared to be somewhere between Molly Weasley and Minerva's age, although her black, curly hair made it difficult to place her age exactly.

"Thank you all for coming today." she said, her thick Scottish accent ringing through the room. Harry could tell that this person was a teacher immediately. Her voice cut through the crowd and while it was magically amplified, he could tell that she probably wouldn't have needed it for the candidates themselves.

"My name is Isobel Scott and I am the Chief Administrator here at the British Academy for Aurors and Hit Wizards. Today, I have the proud honor of declaring that twenty-two students have qualified for graduation, the record of qualified candidates for a single class." she said to a round of polite applause. "The Academy is also proud to state that we saw five students reach the Elite ranking. They are Landon Ivers, Neville Longbottom, Davena Sexton, Shaw Taggert and Ronald Weasley."

Each of the five graduates stood and were recognized by a raucous round of applause with some cheers from their families for their efforts.

"Before we announce the top scorer of the class, I would like to invite Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt to say a few words."

Isobel moved to side, allowing Kingsley to step up to the podium.

"Good morning everyone." Kingsley said. "I joined the Auror Academy six months after graduating from Hogwarts. For years, I had been uncertain with what I wanted to do with my life. I had considered returning to teach at Hogwarts or join the Ministry of Magic. I had even been offered a job working with the Gringotts Curse Breakers. But none of those jobs appealed to me."

"Then, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the man who would one day become my mentor, approached my father about the Auror Academy. Apparently, some professors from Hogwarts, including Albus Dumbledore himself, had passed my name to Moody, who had taken some interest in me. I had never considered being an Auror before. While my Defense grades had been good during school, it was not due to a particular love of the subject. Still, the more I thought about it, the more the job seemed to appeal to me."

"So, in September, I joined the Auror Academy for the hardest five months of my life. Each and every day, I was tested to the end of my limits and then some. I was given tests that would have made NEWTs seem like the first quiz you took on your first day at Hogwarts. I was bruised, beaten, bloodied and bandaged nearly the entire time that I was here."

"But it is also where I began some of the most formative relationships in my life. I became close friends with John Dawlish and Moody himself, relationships that would last until Moody's unfortunate death and to this very day with John. In just five months, I was transformed and my life has never been the same since then. For those of you that will never experience this, you cannot understand what this will do to you."

Kingsley turned and spoke directly to the graduates behind him.

"But you know, right? You know that you have been changed by this time. You have formed bonds, forged in fire, that can never be broken. From now until the day you die, the members of your graduating class will be your closest friends, your most trusted confidantes and the people most likely to jump into the fire with you. Now, you walk into service as an Auror of the Ministry of Magic, one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed on anyone and the highest honor of my life. My only recommendation: make sure that you take care of yourself. The life of an Auror will be hard and sometimes lonely. Find people who care about you, people who are not Aurors, and confide in them. Tell them what is bothering you, tell them your fears and tell them what you want from your life. Let them know that you are safe. Without that balance, your life will be hard. With it, the life of an Auror is immensely rewarding."

Turning back around, he now addressed the friends and families of the graduates once more.

"The rest of you have an important role to play as well. Be understanding. There will be things that your loved ones cannot tell you. Be understanding. There will be days where they want to simply be alone with their thoughts. Be understanding. There will be days where they don't want to leave your side. Be understanding. If you do that, if you give these men and women your support, they will be able to do their job, knowing that they are coming home to an environment that will help them recover from the stresses of the day. No one is more important to the success, safety and well being of an Auror than their family."

"I would like to congratulate this year's graduating class. May your years at the Ministry be fruitful and I thank you for continuing a proud tradition of protecting our great country from threats at home and abroad."

The crowd stood and applauded both Kingsley and the graduates, which had been instructed to stand by their instructors. Harry could barely see Ron, standing in the center of the front row, with a big smile on his face. While Harry knew that Ron wasn't interested in becoming an Auror because of the fame and fortune (There wasn't any), he also knew that Ron would love being the center of attention, even just for a few moments.

Isobel and Kingsley whispered something to each other, which caused Kingsley to laugh as he took his seat, while Isobel returned to the podium.

"Each year, the Academy recognizes two people in each class. The first award goes to the Most Distinguished Graduate. In order to receive this award, the graduate must score in the top ten percent of both the academic and practical scoring systems. However, they must also be an effective leader and a willing teammate. Previous winners of this award include Gawain Robards, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Rufus Scrimgeour. This year's winner is finished third in the class in academic testing and second in practical testing. I am pleased to announce that this year's Most Distinguished Graduate is Neville Longbottom."

Almost instantly, the room exploded with applause as Neville stepped down from his place in the back row. As he made his way forward, Harry was happy to see that his classmates seemed to be incredibly supportive of Neville's success, clapping him on the back as he marched down to receive his award.

When he reached the main stage, he was quickly greeted by both Isobel and Kingsley, who congratulated him before posing for a picture that would certainly make the Daily Prophet the next day.

It took nearly three minutes for the crowd to finally quiet down, so overzealous was the reaction to Neville's award. Harry was happy for Neville. That kind of award was a long time coming to someone like Neville and he was glad that someone had finally officially recognized him.

"Our final award is for The Alastor Moody Memorial Award for Excellence, which goes to the highest scoring witch or wizard in each class. This year, however, special mention has to be made to our winner. Since the start of the Auror Academy in the early nineteen hundreds, only three graduates have ever scored a perfect score in their time at the Academy. The first to perform the feat was Alastor Moody himself, the second was Gawain Robards and the final graduate was Alice Longbottom."

"Today, we can add a fourth student to that list." Isobel said with a slight smirk. Around Harry, the Weasley family was already starting to lose their minds. They had already known that Ron had been the highest scoring student in the class, something that had apparently been the case for quite some time now.

But for Ron to be put in such a historic group? The Weasley family had likely never been prouder.

"Our winner scored over one hundred percent on both his academic and practical finals. Throughout the course, over two dozen tests and quizzes were given. Our winner scored a perfect score on all of them. During that same time period, six practical examinations were given. Three of them were given in a team environment and three individually. Our winner, and his teams, achieved perfect scores on all six examinations."

"As an instructor as The Academy, I have never seen a student more prepared for his duties as an Auror than our winner. Today, I am pleased to announce that this year's winner of The Alastor Moody Memorial Award for Excellence is Ronald Bilius Weasley."

While the audience had gone wild for Neville, Harry didn't have words for the reaction of the audience for Ron's award. Looking around, Harry saw that a fair number of Order members, along with half a dozen member of Dumbledore's Army were present and each of them were cheering as loud as possible with Seamus Finnigan even standing on his chair.

Looking down the rows of chairs, Harry saw that both Arthur and Molly had burst into tears and were barely being held up by Percy and George, respectively. Harry took a moment to look at each member of the Weasley family. Only seven months ago, this family had been broken, rubbed down to the bone, by the loss of one of their own. While that wound wasn't any less fresh, Harry could see that they had clearly started to recover.

A day like today would be helpful for that. Ron stepped forward and, like Neville, posed for a picture before being invited by Isobel to step in front of the podium. He did so and paused for a moment, clearly looking for his family roughly twenty rows back from the front. When he finally saw them, he waved and then lifted his award and pointed at it, which caused another round of cheers.

"I don't know what to do." Ron admitted, causing the room to laugh as they took their seats. "My life has been full of crazy things but this might just be the craziest. I've known for awhile now that I wanted to be an Auror and I wanted to be good at it. I have a lot of really wonderful people in my life and I wanted to do them proud. To Mum and Dad, Bill and Fleur, Charlie, Percy, George and Ginny: thanks for your support. I know I was probably a git at some point in the last few months and for that, I'm sorry."

"My classmates over the years have been the best." Ron added. "It's been awesome working with Neville again along with all the other graduates. But I can't even begin to tell you how much I have learned from my two oldest classmates and closest friends. Without Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, I never would have got here. Harry was the one who really taught me how to use my wand. He took all that terrible teaching we got from some of the worst Defense Against the Dark Arts professors ever and he made it make sense. Then, somewhere along the line, Hermione's constant reminders that I should study and do my homework must have finally kicked in, just eight years too late."

Ron found Harry and Hermione and gave them a wave, which Harry and Hermione returned, having never been prouder of their oldest friend. When Ron looked back down at the award in his hand, however, his smile faltered slightly.

"But most of all, I'm doing this for my brother, Fred." Ron said, his voice cracking gently. "Fred was a wonderful person and I miss him every day. When I decided to go to the Academy, it was Fred's memory that told me that I was doing this right thing. When things got tough, Fred would remind me that I could succeed. When I wanted to quit early or take a night off, I was reminded that Fred would never have another night off again. Fred Weasley has been my inspiration and without him, without my friends and family, I never would have achieved anything even close to this. Thank you."

When the ceremony finished up, Harry, Hermione, Luna and the rest of the Weasleys raced up to the front to congratulate Ron. Unfortunately, Ron only had a few minutes to spare. Some of the graduates had arranged a party and Ron was going. It was strange, knowing that Ron had spent months forming all of these relationship without them.

That was until Harry realized that he had done the same. He was friends with Daphne Greengrass now, albeit in a slightly formal way. His relationship with Luna and Ginny and even Hermione had changed and Harry was happier now than he had ever been.

It was clear based on how universally Ron seemed to be loved by the rest of the graduates, superseded by only Neville it seemed, that the same was true for Ron.

They hadn't done it together but somehow, someway, they had all found happiness after The Battle of Hogwarts again. In the end, that was all Harry needed to know.

While Harry didn't get to spend any time with Ron that night, he was able to catch an evening with his oldest friend the night before Harry went back for his last few weeks as a student at Hogwarts. Rather than sit around Grimmauld Place and drink (which had been Harry's suggestion), Ron suggested they get out of the house and drink. Specifically, they went back to Hogsmeade and grabbed a corner table at the Three Broomsticks where Madam Rosmerta spent the next several hours bringing them some of her private batch of Butterbeer, which had a much higher chance of knocking you unconscious than regular Butterbeer.

Harry had never been to The Three Broomsticks when school wasn't in session. Not surprisingly, the place was nearly empty, even on a Saturday night. Considering that Hogsmeade only had a population of a few hundred people, this shouldn't have been a surprise. Still, Harry found it a bit strange that he could actually hear what Ron was saying and didn't have to shout his replies.

For most of the night, both Harry and Ron avoided work and school. Instead, they chose to talk about Quidditch, a subject that neither of them had followed recently, considering they had each spent the last four months locked away at a school of sorts. Still, they knew enough to spend roughly an hour on that before the conversation shifted to something more serious.

"So, who are you being assigned to?" Harry asked, slurring his words slightly after his fourth of Madam Rosmerta's special batch went down the hatch.

For a moment, Ron looked apprehensive before taking a rather large gulp of his drink. Once he was done, he looked off into the distance, his eyes not meeting Harry when he answered.

"I can't answer that question." Ron said. While most people would consider Ron's behavior rude, Harry knew that he was nervous. People keeping secrets from Harry was notoriously aggravating to the Boy Who Lived.

"Really? Why not?" Harry asked, genuinely curious. He knew that Ron still would likely not be able to tell him but that didn't mean that he couldn't ask.

"I've been assigned to an undercover international unit." Ron replied. "I can't tell anyone where I'm going. The only thing I'm allowed to reveal is that I will be leaving the country and I should be back sometime this spring."

"Wow. That's incredible." Harry said. "How many other graduates got that kind of assignments?"

"None." Ron revealed. "I'm the only Junior Auror on the team. Hand picked by Gawain Robards himself."

Normally, Harry would have expected Ron to be proud of this fact. Instead, he sat and blankly stared at the far wall, his eyes glazed over as he spoke.

"Ron, is everything okay?"

Again, Ron took a minute to speak. When he did, he spoke softly and with such a deliberate pace that Harry wondered if he wasn't picking each word one at a time from a jar somewhere deep inside his brain.

"I'm off the edge here, Harry." Ron said. "For years, I could always rely on you and Hermione. Now, I'm going to be heading off to Merlin knows where, doing Merlin knows what and it won't be the same. I was always the third fiddle."

"Ron, that's not how-"

"It's okay, Harry." Ron said, his eyes finally turning back to Harry. "In the past, I would have been upset about that fact. But I've learned a couple of things over the past few months. First, I'm pretty damn exceptional myself if I apply myself. Second, almost everyone in the world would play third fiddle to the two of you, so I'm glad it was me."

"We always knew that you could be exceptional."

"Hermione did." Ron admitted. "But now, I'm not the third fiddle. I was selected for this mission by the Chief Auror himself. The next youngest Auror has six years of experience. This is a huge step for me. If I do this right and do it well, my stock in the Aurors will shoot way up. If I don't-"

"You will." Harry interjected. "I have complete confidence in the fourth person to ever get a perfect score at the Auror Academy."

"I know." Ron replied. "I don't know when I'll be back. Hell, I don't even know what I'll be doing or when I'll be able to get a letter back home. I just want you to know that I'm sorry for how I acted this summer."

"Ron, your brother had just been murdered. You were trying to deal with that."

"Yes, but there are plenty of people that I could have lashed out at other than one of few people that has always stood by my side."

"That would have been nice, yeah." Harry replied. "Listen, it's in the past. It's over and we need to move on. Let's focus on getting ourselves really drunk so that I can be hungover on the train tomorrow."

"Can't you just walk up to the castle and stay the night?"

"I have to provide supervision as Head Boy." Harry said. "McGonagall would be pissed if I wasn't on the train."

"Maybe not the best idea to piss off your future boss?"

"Exactly."

Ron raised his glass. "To being hungover on the train!"

Unfortunately, being hungover on the train was not as fun as it sounded, mostly because the train, despite being magical in nature, still made all the same scraping noises of a real train, likely to give the effect of being a typical Muggle train. This meant that by the time the Head Boy and Girl meeting was over, Harry had a splitting headache.

That was not helped by the fact that once all of the Prefects were out of the room, Minerva McGonagall suddenly Apparated into the compartment.

"Headmistress?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Potter, Granger: have a seat." Minerva said, pointing to one of the chairs around them as she took a seat in one of the chairs that the Prefects had just abandoned.

Looking at the Headmistress, Harry could see that Minerva hadn't been sleeping well in the few weeks since he had seen her last. The skin around her eyes was dark and drooping. Her eyes themselves were red and veiny. It looked as if the Headmistress could benefit from a nice long nap.

"I wanted to tell the both of you before we got back to school."

"Tell us what?" Hermione asked.

"Over the few weeks that we have been out of school, I have received no less than two hundred letters, mostly from the parents of first and second year students, that have withdrawn their children from Hogwarts...permanently."

"Where are they taking their children for school?" Harry asked.

"Most of them have decided on homeschooling their children." Minerva explained. "Until we can guarantee the safety of our students, I fear that, without Albus, this will be our future."

"Are you saying that Hogwarts may not stay open?" Hermione asked.

"It is a real possibility." Minerva admitted. "Enrollment has been dropping for decades. Most of that is due to the decreasing number of children being born as families got smaller and potential parents were murdered by Voldemort but it still raises the issue of enrollment. Hogwarts is not equipped to remain open for so few students. Eventually, the Governors will decide that the only course of action will be to close the school."

"That's awful." Harry muttered to himself.

"Something will almost definitely rise up in its place." Minerva replied. "Exactly what that is, I'm not certain, but I've already heard rumors that there are former students in Exeter looking to open up a new school."

"We've got to do something." Hermione replied. "Hogwarts has stood for a thousand years. It's a tradition."

"I agree and thankfully, I have something that might help us." Minerva said as she held up a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"The paper?" Harry asked.

"All year long, Barnabas Cuffe has been begging for an interview with the two of you."

"Wait, just the two of us?" Harry asked. "Not Ron?"

"Ron didn't choose to come back to Hogwarts. The two of you did and Cuffe would love the inside story as to why."

Harry immediately saw the draw for Minerva. Any story with Harry and Hermione's names in it that mentioned Hogwarts in a positive light, which they would surely do, would be a great form of publicity for the school. In fact, Harry couldn't think of anything that would be better for it.

There was only one problem, which Hermione articulated perfectly.

"We can't do this interview without Ron."

"Why? He's not here and the two of you are." Minerva replied.

"Yes, but that's not how he'll see it." Harry countered. He knew they needed to do the interview. But he also knew that Ron would be upset if he felt like the two of them were getting publicity for their time at school. Ron had been a part of six of their seven years. It felt wrong not to include him in a conversation about why they returned to school, even if he didn't choose to return to school himself.

Suddenly, an idea formed in Harry's head.

"What if we offered them a series of interviews?"

"What do you mean?" Minerva asked.

"I mean what if they got a one-on-one with each of us? We could each tell our story of Hogwarts that way. Then, they could get a three person interview at the end. We would spend most of that time talking about Hogwarts. But we can also give them some more information on what we did last year. Before we agree to the interviews, we ensure that Hogwarts will be played in a positive light. If he agrees, then he gets four surefire front page interviews and we get more publicity for the school than we know what to do with."

"It wouldn't convince the people who blame you for the war." Minerva replied as she thought aloud.

"Do we really want those people at Hogwarts anyway?" Hermione asked, only half-joking.

"What do you mean?"

"These are people that can't see that Voldemort was clearly to blame for the war. Do we really need those kind of people at Hogwarts?" Hermione said, posing the question to Minerva who didn't initially react. When she did, it was just to give a slight smirk and a shrug of her shoulders.

"I'll talk to Cuffe and see what he says. In the meantime, we need to be thinking of other ways to promote the school and boost the student population again." Minerva said as she stood from her chair. "Keep that in mind and I'll talk to you again about all of this once I've heard from Cuffe."

With that, Minerva Apparated from the train, leaving Harry and Hermione alone. Harry decided that, rather than being social, he would prefer to sleep off the rest of his hangover. Thankfully, finding an empty compartment wasn't a difficult task anymore. With the dwindling population of the school (and the fact that some students had undoubtedly remained at Hogwarts), almost the entire last car of the train was empty.

Harry had been asleep for nearly an hour when he heard the door to his compartment open. Opening his eyes, Harry saw Ginny sneaking into his compartment.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, causing Ginny to jump in surprise.

"Gah! I thought you were asleep!"

"I was and then someone opened the door." Harry replied. "What are you doing?"

Ginny took a seat across from Harry and placed her head in her hands.

"We have to talk."

Harry sat up quickly. He didn't like the tone in her voice at all.

"About what?"

"About the other night."

"The other night?"

"When you helped me into bed." Ginny said. Immediately, Harry knew exactly what she was talking about.

"We don't have to talk about a thing." Harry said. "You were struggling with...something."

"I was."

"Have you talked to anyone about what it was?"

"I haven't." Ginny admitted.

"You know that you can talk to me." Harry said. "Or Hermione. Hell, you can probably still talk to Neville."

"I know." Ginny said. "I just...I, uh, wanted to thank you for helping me that night. I don't remember much but what I do remember was…"

"Not flattering?" Harry suggested.

"We'll go with that." Ginny replied. "If you were anything less than the perfect gentleman, you could have done whatever you wanted to me. But that's what I love about you. That's what everyone loves about you is your decency and your respect for your loved ones."

"Well, I know that I've been in a bad way before and others have helped. I'm just trying to return the favor." Harry said. "You have no need to thank me."

"But I will anyway. Thank you again." Ginny said softly. Then, just as suddenly as she had entered the room, she stood and left, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. Of course, that didn't last very long because less than ten seconds later, Ginny returned and kissed Harry gently before racing out of the room again.

Harry treated that as a good sign but the fact that she hadn't been brave enough to stay and talk about what she had done confused Harry. Did she think that she owed Harry some sort of strange sexual favor for his actions? Did she want to date him but was too afraid to ask? Thousands of questions racked Harry's mind as they returned to Hogwarts.

Even as he sat down for dinner in the Great Hall, Harry found himself unable to look at Ginny for fear that a thousand questions would come pouring out of his mouth. Instead, he focused all of his attention on Hermione, hoping that would keep him from thinking about the redhead seated just two seats down from him.

Harry and Hermione enjoyed a brief dinner before heading back to their Common Area. While Hermione intended to stay up and work on a study guide for her Ancient Runes NEWT (something that Harry couldn't fathom so far away from the exams), Harry was tired and planned to go to bed.

That was until he got into his room and saw an unmarked envelope on his bed. Looking around the room, Harry withdrew his wand and cast a series of detection charms. There was no one there and it didn't appear that any of the wards in the room were damaged in anyway. This meant that it had been shipped to Hogwarts via the owl post and that even though it was unmarked, someone had placed it in his room.

Knowing that there was the potential for this letter to include some dangerous hexes, Harry cast another series of detection charms, this time on the envelope itself. Shockingly, there was nothing that Harry could detect on it.

The envelope was clean.

Still, it was with some trepidation that Harry opened the letter.

 _To Harry Potter:_

 _I write you this letter under the most dire of circumstances. This evening, I received a letter from the Ministry of Magic, asking for both my son and I to come and testify in open court against my husband and several other Death Eaters. I know that this is something that we must do. My husband did hundreds of terrible things over the years and I must pay for them in some way._

 _But the Ministry of Magic has refused to grant us protective status until the trial is over. They have placed us in a home in London with round the clock protection but we are not being hidden, our names are said repeatedly by the Aurors and we are known as "The Malfoy detail" among the Aurors themselves. All it would take is a single ally loyal to my husband or Antonin or any one of the imprisoned Death Eaters to look at the forms or overhear a conversation and we would be found._

 _I do not expect pity from you. My family, and my son in particular, has been the cause of much pain to you over the years. I know that even asking you for assistance is a risk but it is a risk I must take. I am asking for your help in getting myself and my son out of the country after we have finished testifying against my husband. I ensure you that if we make it out of the country, you will never have to worry about seeing our faces again._

 _I am also prepared to ensure that the seat that the Malfoy family currently holds in the Wizengamot pass to you upon our safe passage. My family will no longer have any claim to them and as the Black family representative, they will fall to you._

 _If you have any mercy in your heart, then I beg you to meet with me and discuss this further._

 _Narcissa Malfoy_

Harry sat with the letter in his hands, silent as he thought about what to do next. If this letter had been written to literally anyone else, he knew what they would say. They would say that Narcissa and Draco had earned their place in hell and if they were discovered and murdered by Death Eaters or even those that had been killed by Death Eaters, then good riddance.

But part of the reason that Harry had given them the opportunity to testify against Lucius was because he believed that they hadn't been given the proper chance at a life outside of Lucius's sphere of influence. If he allowed them to be killed before they got that opportunity, then why did he even go out on a limb for them in the first place?

Even by magic, changing their appearance and identity enough so that they would never be discovered would be nearly impossible. They were among the most famous people in the country. Like Narcissa had said, sooner or later, someone would find them. He also knew that, despite their warming attitude towards him, they would never accept a placement in a Muggle environment where they were sure to be safe.

No, the only way to ensure their safety was to get them out of the country where they could live lives away from their reputation and become new people entirely. There, they would be able to use magic and still be themselves but without the burden of the expectations placed on them by the Malfoy name.

Harry went to his desk and took out a quill to pen his reply.

 _Narcissa,_

 _I will meet with you this weekend in Hogsmeade. Be at the Hog's Head Inn with Draco and your Auror protection detail at noon. Tell your Aurors who you are meeting and they will agree to let you go._

 _I do not need to tell you what happens to you or your son if you are attempting to use this as an opportunity to attack me or the school._

 _Harry Potter_

Harry immediately left the Headmaster's Tower and marched the length of the school to the Owlery where he used one of the school's owls to send the reply. Harry stood in the tower, watching the owl disappear over the horizon. The only thought in his mind was the realization that Harry had just gone out of his way for a second time to help Draco Malfoy, the boy who had spent most of their time together terrorizing him.

But, Draco had also had Lucius as a father which, all things considered, may have been worse than having no father at all.


	29. Twenty-Nine

The next morning, Harry returned to the typical routine of his Hogwarts schedule. He woke up early and got some last minute work done before going down to breakfast with Hermione. Thankfully, Ginny wasn't present while he was there so he could focus on eating in silence instead of whatever would happen when he finally got around to talking to her. Looking around the Great Hall, it seemed that Minerva's prediction had been right. Never before had Harry seen The Great Hall look so empty with the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables particularly empty. Harry supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised that the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws remained. Gryffindors were notoriously stubborn and Ravenclaws valued education over everything else.

Still, it was a strange experience that was accented by the fact that Harry could hear almost every voice in the room individually, almost of whom seemed to be talking about the same thing: the attack on Hogsmeade. While it seemed like it had been forever since that day, Harry knew that it had only been a few weeks. Plus, it had happened the last time everyone had been at the school which immediately brought it back to the forefront of everyone's minds.

As Harry ate, he sat and listened to Parvati and Dennis as they talked about what they had done over Christmas break. Just as Parvati began an astounding story about visiting her cousins in Delhi, Bill approached Harry.

"Harry, would you mind observing the fifth year Defense class this afternoon?"

It was a strange request, considering Bill knew Harry's schedule and also knew that Harry was required to do just about anything Bill asked. Still, he supposed that Bill was just being polite and thought nothing more of it, nodding his head in affirmation.

"Great." Bill said. "Class starts at three."

Before Harry could observe that class, however, he had his own class to attend: Transfiguration with Professor Viktor Krum. Krum continued to force new material down their throats, wasting no time getting into the details of Animagus transformations and the many potential dangers involved in performing the transformation poorly which included (but were not limited to) being stuck as a half-person/half-animal, permanently retaining features of the animal, the loss of vital human or animal organs in the transformation, losing control of the animal and failing to return to human form, complete inability to return to human form and death.

Needless to say, Harry was not looking to become an Animagus anytime soon.

After that, he observed the First Year Defense Against the Arts class, where they were working on learning the basic classes of dangerous and Dark creatures. Overall, it required almost no work from Harry, who simply sat in the back of the room and watched eleven year olds struggle to identify a Hinkypunk from a Grindylow.

Harry ate his lunch quickly before racing up to his dorm to work more on his Transfiguration homework. His essay on Human Transfiguration, or his part of his group's essay, was already almost four feet long and he still had another few months of research before it would be completed. By the time it was done, it would be, by far, the most complex assignment that Harry had ever completed.

Finally, Harry put all of his materials away and returned to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, arriving precisely at three to see Bill and Fleur in the front of the room with the entire class already in their seats. Harry had never once seen any class completely on time on the first day back from break in his entire six and a half years at Hogwarts.

However, he quickly found out why they were in their seats. The moment Harry walked in the door, he noticed that everyone in the room was staring at him, including Bill and Fleur. Suddenly, Bill lifted his wand and silently cast a Stunner.

Harry had only a second to think before he dropped to the floor, casting his bag to his side and drawing his wand. Immediately, he knew what this was: it was a test. Bill and Fleur were also using it as a demonstration, which is why everyone had been ready to go. Knowing that the students were expecting a show, Harry stood, not wanting to disappoint them and ready to make Bill suffer for attempting to surprise him.

That was until Fleur suddenly brandished her wand at him, a single coil of rope flying from them in Harry's direction. With a quick slash of his wand, Harry cut through the rope before he launched a series of curses and hexes in Fleur's direction, pushing her back towards her husband. This allowed Harry to defend from only one direction but it also meant that the power of the spells hitting his shields was that much stronger, considering it was usually two spells at once.

Throwing up shield after shield, Harry stepped forward after a particularly nasty Banishing Charm hit his shield. Whipping his wand over his head, Harry mirrored Fleur's tactic, hitting her Shield with a Banishing Charm that nearly knocked her off her feet. Fleur growled in frustration and then fired back with a series of charms that Harry could barely block. By the time the last spell in the series got to Harry, all he could do was step out of the way, hardly able to lift his wand to defend himself.

Seeing his opportunity, Bill attempted to Stun Harry once more. Too tired to raise a shield, Harry dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way, choosing to hide behind the large demonstration table at the front of the room. Hiding on the far side of the table, Harry could feel several large spells hit the desk above him and saw even more go flying over his head as he did his best to catch his breath.

He had been in several duels before but never against two people and certainly never against two duelists anywhere near as good as Bill or Fleur by themselves, let alone together. Much like Elizabeth and Ethan, he stood no chance in a fair fight against the two of them.

But Harry, having recovered as much as he was going to in a few moments, was not about to give them a fair fight. Leaning out around the desk, Harry aimed his wand at Bill's feet, silently casting a Knot Tying Charm on his shoes. Harry then launched himself out from behind the desk, rolling to his feet before sprinting up in the middle of the class where the students were sitting. He knew that they couldn't cast anything dangerous with him standing up there, giving him a clear advantage for the moment.

He was also able to press his advantage when Bill attempted to run towards him, only to fall flat on his face. The class laughed as Harry sprinted back towards the front of the room, silently throwing a rope that tied Bill to the floor, his wand just out of arm's reach. Noticing that it was now one-on-one, Fleur attempted to reach her husband before she could do that, Harry was throwing every non-lethal and legal curse and spell in the book at her, barraging her with more spells that she could handle.

Unfortunately for Harry, even all of that couldn't bring Fleur down and left Harry utterly and totally drained. Having survived Harry's onslaught, she turned and returned the favor, throwing at least fifteen spells in Harry's direction. Harry was able to fight off the first five before a succession of spells hit him, throwing him backwards against the wall and knocking him unconscious.

When he awoke, he saw a concerned Bill and Fleur Weasley standing around him, surrounded by the entirety of the classroom. Harry could feel a pounding in his head as tried to get to his feet. However, Harry had used so much magic that the moment he reached his feet, he could feel his head start to spin once more. Immediately, Fleur tucked her head under Harry's arm and dragged him to a chair at the front of the room.

"I thought you were teaching Charms now." Harry grumbled to Fleur as she deposited him in the chair.

"Bill wanted my 'elp with zis lesson." Fleur replied, a wicked smirk on her face. "I said I would be 'appy to 'elp."

"Go away." Harry groaned as he leaned back into his chair while Bill started to lecture his class on the values of preparedness. Despite not having any idea this was coming, Harry had been ready to defend himself at a moment's notice, a trait that had been instilled into him by years of training.

In that regard, Bill wasn't wrong.

The class spent much of the next hour dissecting the duel with various students pointing out Harry's successes. A few of them even managed to bring up good points regarding strategies that Harry could try if he ever found himself in a similar situation. Harry had to say that he was impressed by Bill's students. They thought rationally and appeared to be quite observant, especially considering the fact that none of them had uttered a single word during the duel, which meant that the students had to analyze everything without knowing what spell someone was going to cast until they saw it.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang and Bill dismissed the students, leaving Harry alone with himself and Fleur.

"Harry, I assume that you understood this was a test of your skills as well as a demonstration."

"Yeah, I guessed that."

"Before we tell you what we thought, 'ow do you feel you did?" Fleur asked.

Harry considered that for a moment. In the end, he had lost but he knew that he had handled himself well.

"I played your game for too long. I should have been looking to isolate one of you sooner." Harry said as he thought more about it. "Also, I wasn't thinking about what I was casting at the end. I was just throwing everything I had at Fleur."

"On ze uzzer 'and," Fleur countered, "you 'andled yourself quite well against two people who knew ze test was coming."

"In fact, I would say that there are probably only a handful of people in the whole country who could survive as long as you did against a surprise attack from the two of us. With a bit more work, you'll would be able to beat us with ease." Bill added.

"You think so?"

"Harry, I know quite a few good duelists and I would put you right alongside the best."

Harry knew that he was talented when it came to Defense. But it was even better when it came from your professor, especially one that he truly respected. It made him worry just a little less about the stress of taking over for Bill in just a few short months.

The first week of classes flew by. Eventually, Harry and Ginny settled into a comfortable silence. Neither of them went out of their way to talk to the other and when they did speak, neither dared mention Ginny's actions on the train. Harry knew they were being stupid. They had been together once already and the world hadn't fallen apart.

But, Harry knew what was keeping him back: fear. He was no longer afraid of being rejected. Now, he was afraid of ruining things with her. Ginny had evolved into one of Harry's closest friends over the last few months. He knew that he likely only had one chance to make things work with her. If it failed, not only would he lose a girlfriend, but there was a very strong chance that he would lose a friend as well.

Still, he knew that he was being stupid. But the fact that Ginny hadn't said anything to him made Harry believe that she was likely going through the same thought process. He knew that eventually they would have to make a move one way or the other but at the moment, they were both content to steal looks at each other from a distance.

Thankfully, Harry had other things to keep his mind busy. Saturday morning, Harry found himself sitting in The Hog's Head. Per his instructions, Narcissa and Draco marched into the pub at just after noon. Judging based on the sensors that Harry had established around the bar, they came with nothing of any magical significance on them (except their wands, of course) and the only people who remained outside the bar were their Aurors, who had immediately set up patrols.

The Malfoys, surprisingly, had done exactly as he had told them.

They approached the corner booth where Harry sat, standing just on the opposite side of the table. Looking at them, Harry observed that they both looked a bit healthier than they had the last time he had seen them. He supposed that wherever they were being held, the food was better than while they had been on the run.

"Sit." Harry said, motioning to the seats across from him. Immediately, Narcissa guided Draco into the booth across from Harry before she sat down next to him.

"Now, before I hear you out, I want to make something perfectly clear." Harry said. "I do not owe you anything, Narcissa. The fact that you do not sit in an Azkaban cell today is due to my intervention and would have covered any debt I may or may not have had. Are we clear?"

"We are." Narcissa confirmed.

"Also, any deal that we make today is made under the agreement that both of you will testify against Lucius. You will remain in England until the findings against Lucius are made public. Is that clear?"

"Yes." Narcissa said.

"Good." Harry said before leaning back in his chair. "I have already spoken with the Minister. He has assured me that your protection will be increased. You will be moved to new accommodations later this week and you will be protected under new identities."

"Thank you." Narcissa said, relief evident in her voice. "Thank you so much."

"But, I want a few things in return."

"What?" Draco suddenly said. "We're giving you my father. What else could you possibly want?"

Harry ignored Draco, turning back to Narcissa. "You had said that you would be willing to grant me the Malfoy seat in the Wizengamot. How does that work?"

"It's quite simple. While Wizengamot seats are typically willed from one family member to the other, almost all of them have safeguards in place that protect their family should something happen to their family line. The few vacant seats in the chamber are almost all the result of either terrible misfortune or a severe lack of foresight. In the case of the Malfoy seat, it is set to fall to the executor of the Black Estate should the Malfoy line die out or should the final living heir refuse to take the seat."

"So Draco would have to recuse himself from the Wizengamot?" Harry said, unable to suppress the smirk that came to his face.

"That is correct." Narcissa said as both Harry and Narcissa turned to look at Draco. "There is no legal circumstance for removing a family from the Wizengamot. However, someone who is actively imprisoned is not allowed to sit in the seat. This means that Draco and I are the last remaining Malfoys. If we both recuse ourselves, then the Malfoy charter will revert to the Black Estate as expected."

"And Draco will do that?" Harry asked, continuing to ignore the pale faced boy sitting across from him.

"I'm right here, Potter. You can ask me to my face." Malfoy sneered.

Harry turned to Draco, a cruel smile suddenly forming on his face. "No, I won't ask. Here's what you will do, Malfoy. You and your mother will both recuse yourself from the Wizengamot. But before you do that, you will amend the Malfoy family charter so that all of the seats your family currently controls are passed to the Black Estate."

Narcissa looked at Harry in confusion.

"I don't know what you mean."

"What you didn't know is that the details of the family charters are stored in two places. One is in the home of the seat holder, the other is in the office of the Minister of Magic. Currently, the Malfoy Estate also holds the Gaunt, Lestrange, Rosier, Rowle, Sewlyn, and Yaxley seats. The Gaunt Seat was granted to the Malfoys in the event of Riddle's death while the others were also passed to Lucius in the event they went to prison."

"You're saying that we currently control seven seats in the Wizengamot?" Draco asked, a greedy look in his eyes.

"For the moment." Harry said. "But you and your mother are going to sign all of those over to me."

"Why the hell would we do that?"

"Because if you don't, I will have the Aurors lift up your left sleeve." Harry growled fiercely. "You know that anyone with a Dark Mark is getting a permanent stay in Azkaban, right?"

Harry turned back to Narcissa.

"Here is the deal: your testimony and safety during the length of the trail and then your escape from England for seven Wizengamot seats and a massive donation from the Malfoy Estate to Hogwarts."

"How much?" Narcissa asked, over the outraged groans of her son.

"Half."

"Half of what?"

"Half of everything the Malfoy Estate is worth." Harry said. "The two of you will be fine. But with that money, Hogwarts can live to see another day. A day that the two of you actively fought against alongside your husband."

"You're asking a lot."

"I am." Harry admitted. "But you owe a lot. I'm going to take those Wizengamot seats and I'm going to change policy. I'm going to change the backwards way we treat people who don't have two magical parents. I'm going to change how we treat non-humans and Muggles. And then when that's all done, I'm going to release those seats and the Wizengamot will become an elected body."

"You think you can do all of that with seven seats?" Narcissa said, failing to suppress a laugh.

"I already have pledged support for ten seats to start work on new legislation regarding Muggleborn rights. If I control seven more seats, that's it."

This was an opportunity that Harry had been looking for and it had dropped into his lap. When Harry had spoken to Kingsley about the deal that he wanted to make with the Malfoys for their seat, Harry had been operating under the assumption that they only controlled one seat, which still would have been valuable.

But when Kingsley had informed him that they had in fact controlled seven, due to the fact that they had passed to the Malfoys as a result of their seat holder being in Azkaban, it all fell in place, something that rarely happened so perfectly in Harry's life.

"You are changed." Narcissa said softly. "You are different from the boy I remember."

"Well, your husband was one of the people who made sure that happened." Harry growled. "Now, do we have a deal?"

Narcissa looked at Harry before turning to Draco. Neither said a word but Harry watched as they clearly communicated their agreement to each other but Narcissa turned back to Harry and nodded.

"Seven seats and half our gold to Hogwarts."

"Good." Harry said. "The Aurors outside will take you to your new safehouse."

"I thought you said it would take a week."

"I lied." Harry said with satisfaction. "I had that in my back pocket if you proved resistant to our bargain."

Narcissa considered Harry for a moment and then nodded, understanding that she had been beaten in this "negotiation" in every conceivable way.

"Change is not always a good thing, Mr. Potter. You have grown and become something different than you were before. But take care not to let your newfound confidence corrupt you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry said in confusion. However, before Narcissa could stand to leave, Harry asked one more question. "Why do you care one way or the other?"

Narcissa stood and put on her traveling cloak before looking back down at Harry and considering him once more.

"Your negotiation tactics. They remind me of my husband's."

With that, Narcissa and Draco walked out of the Hog's Head, leaving to go to wherever the Aurors had decided was a safer location for them. As they walked away, Harry could only think of Narcissa's final words. Certainly, he had been harsh with the Malfoys in his tactics. But if anyone had deserved that, it had been them.

Hadn't they?

Still, Harry was able to put that out of his mind with relative ease when he considered that he had just gained the future rights to eight seats in the Wizengamot that would allow him to change the wizarding world forever.

Between that and his surprise duel with Bill and Fleur, Harry had quite the eventful first week back at Hogwarts. However, the astonishing part about his last year at Hogwarts was that all of that could seem easy in comparison to the complexity of his classwork. Over the next few weeks, Harry would be challenged to his limits on an almost daily basis. In a way, he supposed this made a certain amount of sense. For most Hogwarts students, this would be their last year of school in their entire lives. If they didn't truly know the skills of their craft when they graduated, then there was no hope for them to be able to catch up with those that had been in the field for years, who had spent all that time learning on the job.

Still, between the hours of homework, studying, essay writing, and other general classroom work, Harry barely felt like he had time to breathe. He thought back to his previous years at Hogwarts and couldn't help but laugh. At the time, he had remembered thinking that his third year exams were impossibly difficult. He remembered feeling like he was drowning under the weight of his OWL exams, struggling to keep his head above water as he balanced the practical and written exams. Even just two years earlier, he felt as if there was no possible way for his schoolwork to be any more challenging than the last half of his sixth year.

Oh, if he only had the ability to see what his future would be, Harry thought to himself on a random Saturday in January as he stretched into his tenth hour of studying.

But even through all of that, Harry had done a better job of ensuring that he was balancing his time. Without exception, Harry and Hermione had joined the rest of his classmates for a weekly meeting of what was left of Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement each Friday evening. Originally born out of an idea to find a place where Luna would feel more at home, they realized that if they were meeting in the Room of Requirement, then they could invite more people.

So, members of Dumbledore's Army were encouraged to attend. However, unlike before, there was no academic emphasis placed on these meetings. They were simply there to have fun. No other members had been added to the group so everyone could let their hair down at the end of a long week of classes and just enjoy themselves for a bit. Even these once a week meetings, which had thankfully taken the place of Ethan and Elizabeth's detentions, were enough to let Harry feel as if he had some time to himself to simply relax and let the world pass him by, even if it was only for a moment.

These meetings would have been an ideal time to speak with Ginny. Unfortunately, she had only attended the first one. It seemed as if she was actively avoiding Harry.

Of course, Harry should have known that it was all too good to be true as it so often was in his life. In the beginning weeks of February, Harry was sitting in Charms, listening to Fleur ramble on about the foundational elements of magic and how to manipulate them in order to create new spells. While Fleur was a wonderfully gifted professor, there was still something so strange about her working in Flitwick's former classroom. Harry had realized a few weeks earlier that Filius Flitwick had been the only professor that had been at Hogwarts for all seven of Harry's time there. Even though Flitwick had never been a particularly influential part of Harry's life, he had always been there.

Now, after a brief memorial for the former Charms professor at the beginning of the term, the school's staff had completely turned over from his first year to his last with only one exception: caretaker Argus Filch. However, Harry knew that Minerva despised Filch and would likely remove him from the school soon.

As Fleur talked about the differences in wand movement and how they influenced the particulars of a spell, Harry suddenly felt something strange, a low growl that seemed to start low off in the distance but within just a few seconds, evolved into a loud roar that seemed to race down the halls towards the Charms classroom. Immediately, Harry stood and raced to the door with his wand in hand. Looking out the door, Harry saw that the hallway outside of the Charms classroom had completely caved in, the roof now a hole that Harry could vaguely see up to the next floor.

Immediately, Harry waved his wand and attempted to repair the ceiling. However, nothing happened. Even if Harry had lacked the power to fix such a drastic injury to the castle, something should have happened. Even a few of the blocks that had made up the ceiling should have repaired themselves. Instead, nothing.

Harry stared at the pile of rubble in the middle of the hallway, staring at the length of the hall to where he could see Minerva rushing to the other end. When she arrived at the other end of the pile, nearly three hundred feet away, Minerva looked up at Harry.

"Did you try to fix this?" she asked, concern evident on her face.

"I did." Harry said. "Nothing happened."

Over the course of the next hour, Harry, Fleur, Minerva and a dozen other people tried any number of different ways to fix the ceiling. All of them ended the same way: the ceiling would hold for a moment and then collapse into a pile of rubble once more.

Seeing no other options, Minerva barricaded the Charms hallway from students and declared that Charms would be moved to an empty classroom on the first floor for the remainder of the term. As everyone else left, Harry remained behind with Fleur and Minerva. Once everyone was gone, Harry turned to the Headmistress.

The look on Minerva's face was an immediate giveaway. She didn't look surprised. She didn't look upset.

She was worried. She knew something was going on. She knew why Harry couldn't fix the ceiling. She knew. The knowledge that Minerva McGonagall knew why something like this had happened but couldn't fix it was troubling. It meant that something was wrong with the castle. Hagrid had mentioned that the castle didn't seem right after the Battle and Harry knew that there were sections of the castle that had never been repaired but this was different.

Something was wrong with Hogwarts Castle and Harry intended to find out what.


	30. Thirty

That evening, Minerva called an emergency meeting of the school's staff. Harry and Hermione, as Head Boy and Girl, were also invited. Staff meetings at Hogwarts were almost always incredibly casual affairs. With most of the staff living on the site full time, there wasn't a whole lot of need for a weekly gathering of the mind.

Of course, this wasn't a usual situation. In this case, it was all hands on deck. Having attended every staff meeting since the beginning of the year, Harry was surprised to see every staff member present, including Hagrid and Filch, who never came to these meetings. Looking around the room, Harry got the sense that everyone was nervous, uncertain about what exactly was going on.

The meeting began in earnest when Minerva entered. Instantly, the room went silent as Minerva took her seat at the head of the table.

"Thank you all for coming." Minerva said. Her voice was steady but there was a severe lack of confidence on her face.

"What's going on, Minerva?" Professor Calhoun asked in his typical growl.

"This afternoon, the hallway outside of the Charms classroom collapsed on itself. After several hours of work, we've managed to clear the rubble but the hallway will remain closed until the end of term."

"You cleared the rubble? Why wasn't it fixed?" Bill asked.

"Because we can't fix it." Minerva replied with just a hint of a shake in her voice betraying her. "There is something wrong with the castle."

The mood in the room was somber. There was almost no one living who was as well respected as Minerva McGonagall. In fact, in her lifetime, there were likely only a few witches and wizards who would be considered as gifted as her.

If she said there was something wrong with the castle, then there was something wrong. Harry noticed that she hadn't addressed how she planned on fixing things.

"How can we fix it?" Harry asked. In the past, Harry had been asked to refrain from speaking in these meetings as he wasn't technically a professor yet. But at this point, no one bothered correcting him for speaking out of turn. In fact, it seemed as if everyone was far more interested in hearing Minerva's answer.

Minerva sat at the front of the room, frozen in place, a look of horror on her face. Finally, she broke, her eyes dropping to the floor as she grabbed the table in front of her as if it were the only thing keeping her from falling to the ground.

"We can't."

Those two words elicited a rush of muttered comments around the room. But Harry heard none of that. All he could hear were those two words, echoing over and over and over again in his head. There was no way to save Hogwarts. Hogwarts was his home. He had staked his entire future on Hogwarts. Now, he was being told that there was nothing that he could do to prevent it from one day collapsing in on itself.

"What do you mean we can't?" Professor Sprout asked.

"There is something broken about the castle." Minerva said. "We first noticed it in the days following the Battle of Hogwarts. Parts of the castle simply wouldn't be fixed, no matter what methods we employed to do so. The very walls of Hogwarts are magic. It's how the castle has remained standing without so much as a scratch for more than a millennium. But the damage done by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eater disrupted that magic in some way."

"So the castle is going to come down?" Hermione asked.

"Yes."

"When?" Viktor asked. "Should ve be sending the students home?"

"It is something we should consider." Minerva replied. "As for when the castle will come down, I cannot be certain. It could be in a week, it could be in another hundred years."

"We need to send the students home." Bill said. "We can't leave them here with the risk that the castle suddenly collapses on all of us."

"But some of these kids have nowhere to go." Harry argued. "Think of all the Muggleborn students. They're going to go home and just sit on their hands when they could be here learning magic?"

"Better than being dead."

"I understand both sides of this argument." Minerva said, cutting both of them off before things could get too heated. "Trust me when I say that the moment that I believe that the students are in imminent danger, we will be sending everyone home, students and staff alike. For now, I do not have enough information."

"What have the school governors said?" Calhoun asked.

"They have been informed of the situation and agree that we do not yet have enough information to close down the school." Minerva said. "Remember, we've had attendance issues enough this year and certainly this event will cause more students to leave. If we close Hogwarts, there will be no turning back."

"What are you saying?" Harry asked.

Minerva looked at Harry, hearing the concern in his voice, and gave him a gentle smile.

"If we close the school, it will be closed forever." Minerva said, a tear sliding down her cheek. "The school will never be safer than it is today. If we close now, then we guarantee that no one will ever approve reopening the castle to anyone."

"But if we were to find a way to fix it?" Harry pleaded.

"Harry, we've had some of the best witches and wizards on the planet looking for answer to this matter for months. Ever since the Battle, I've been personally corresponding with no less than two dozen of the world's experts on enchanted buildings and castles. None of them had any information that was helpful in fixing the castle."

They were there for another twenty minutes, discussing possible plans for how to get the students home in case of an emergency. But Harry heard none of it. He couldn't imagine a world without Hogwarts. Not only was it an important institution, the pinnacle of magical education in Britain, but it was his home, the place that had provided him comfort and (relative) safety over the years.

Harry refused to believe that every angle had been looked at. He knew that there had to be a way to fix the castle. In that moment, Harry suddenly wished that he could talk to Dumbledore. Over the last year, Harry had developed into an incredibly independent person, relying less on others and making decisions for himself after a life of others making decisions for him. But Harry admitted that he knew almost nothing about the castle. Even Hermione, who had read _Hogwarts, A History_ back to front so many times that she had been forced to purchase a new copy, knew only the smallest amount of information on the school's construction.

Considering the secrecy of wizarding schools, Harry supposed that made sense. The Founders would have never shared their secrets with anyone else, lest someone try and sabotage the school.

But Harry was determined. Four people had built Hogwarts from the ground up. Even if they had all been twice as brilliant and talented as Dumbledore, that still meant that, at some point, someone had created the magic that sustained the school today.

That meant it could be recreated and if it could be recreated, then it was possible to save the school.

Unfortunately, Harry didn't have time to think about that much. When he arrived back at his room after the meeting, Harry found a letter from the Ministry of Magic, demanding his presence the next day for his testimony against the Death Eaters on trial.

Harry growled when he read the letter. He wanted to put the Death Eaters away but the timing of this request could not have been any worse. Harry's schoolwork continued to get harder and a day away from his classes would only make things worse. Plus, Harry found himself convinced that there was a way to save the school. He had planned on spending all of the next day reading and studying on the creation of Hogwarts, gleaning any information he could from textbooks before going to Minerva and asking her every question he could think to ask.

Now, he would have to spend an entire day recounting his experiences with a bunch of people who had attempted to kill him for most of his life.

Needless to say, Harry would rather have been at school.

And yet, despite his desires, Harry found himself sitting in Courtroom Ten of the Ministry of Magic as the other members of the Wizengamot filed in around him. The trial for the Death Eaters had been going on for months. At least once a week, there was some new testimony to be heard by the Wizengamot. Most of the time, that testimony was boring and inconsequential.

But today, Harry Potter would be testifying. Along with several other Hogwarts students that would be called to testify, Harry's testimony was widely considered to be the most important. In fact, he was one of the few people who was testifying against the entirety of those accused which meant that all of the Death Eaters would be in the same place.

Because of that, security at the Ministry was tighter than ever. Just looking around his seat, Harry could count no less than thirty Aurors and that was before you considered that there were supposedly a dozen or so Hit Wizards hidden among the spectators in the balcony, ready to leap into action if something were to happen.

All in all, it was quite the stressful environment. Thankfully, the stress seemed to be shared by everyone and once Chief Warlock John Dawlish took his seat, a hush fell over the room.

"Thank you all for coming." Dawlish started. "Today, we hear the testimony against the accused by Harry James Potter. Before we begin, are there any motions from the floor?"

Suddenly, the door to the Courtroom exploded, shrapnel from the door flying through the air. Before the dust from the explosion could settle, a wave of black robes came through the door. At first, Harry thought they were dementors.

But then, he noticed the masks.

The Death Eaters had come for their allies. Harry noticed the Aurors starting to come forward and fight back against the Death Eaters. Reaching down to his right, Harry grabbed Arthur up from the floor, where he had ducked behind the barrier in front of them in order to protect himself from onslaught of spells that had suddenly started firing their direction.

It was clear that, while they were there for their compatriots, they were trying to take Harry out at the same time.

Unfortunately for them, Harry had no interest in that.

"Get everyone out!" Harry shouted to Arthur before standing and deflecting three Killing Curses that flew towards him.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping." Harry growled as he vaulted the barrier in front of him. He turned back to Arthur. "Get them out!"

Harry turned back to see that the Death Eaters had brought wands with them and were handing them out to the accused. Knowing that he couldn't let them get out, Harry leveled his wand at the door.

" _Reparo!"_

Instantly, pieces from the door flew back into place from all over the room, restoring the door to its former state. While it would be just as easy for the Death Eaters to blow the door open again, it would slow them down just long enough.

Just long enough for Harry to Transfigure the door from wood to solid steel, something that Krum had taught them only earlier in the month. Because steel was an alloy and therefore a combination of two metals, it was almost impossible to Transfigure a single substance into it without screwing it up and causing the entire thing to fall apart. But Harry performed the spell perfectly and the doors fused together into one solid metal wall.

Using the same spell to blow up the door would have killed everyone in the room, Death Eaters included, which meant that it was no longer an option to escape at the moment. They would have to face the Aurors in the room first.

As Harry turned away from the door, he noticed that Fenrir Greyback had been released of his shackles. Now, he approached Harry, a ravenous look in his eyes and a wand in his hands. Drawing back, he threw a series of Killing Curses, all of which missed Harry or were deflected with ease. As Harry fought back against Greyback, he noticed that almost all of the Death Eaters were attempting to get to him.

Save for Dolohov himself, that is. Dolohov, who stood away from the rest of his soldiers, seemed to be attempted to Imperuse a number of the Aurors into working for his side. Only the combined efforts of Percy and Arthur kept Dolohov from being able to do so.

Focusing back on the man across from him, Harry threw a series of Stunners that quickly threw Greyback off balance. It was clear that Greyback, in addition to being tired from months of captivity, was not particularly gifted with a wand. His werewolf tendencies had been what had made him a feared member of Voldemort's forces, not his skill.

So it was not great surprise when Harry quickly Disarmed the werewolf, the wand in his hand floating in the air. Harry quickly flipped his wand up in the air, incinerating the wand. Unfortunately, when he lowered his wand to look back at Greyback, Harry discovered that Greyback had charged towards him. Greyback was now only several feet away from Harry, his razor-sharp teeth bared.

Harry, reacting without thought, leveled his wand.

" _Diffindo!"_

There was a flash of red light and then Greyback stopped in his tracks. However, something happened then that Harry had not expected. When he had fired the curse, he had been aiming for Greyback's arm, hoping to remove it and stop the werewolf from attacking anyone else until he could be healed.

That's when Harry saw the thin red line appear across Greyback's neck before his head suddenly rolled backwards, separating itself from the rest of his body. The head hit the ground with a sickening splat while the body hovered for a moment before crashing down to the ground with a thud that Harry swore he could hear even over the pandemonium in the room.

Looking down, Harry saw the blood from the spot where Greyback's head had been had reached his feet. Instinctively, Harry recoiled from the blood, his heart racing as he realized what he had just done.

He had killed.

Even if it had been an accident, there was no question. Harry had killed someone. It hadn't been the first time, of course, but he had never been so close it when it had happened. While he knew that no one would mourn Fenrir Greyback's loss, Harry had spent years committed to the ideal that he would kill no one. He hadn't even been willing to kill Voldemort.

Now, that was all for nothing.

"Hem, hem."

If there was one person that Harry did not want to come across right now, this was it. Turning around, Harry saw Dolores Umbridge, wand in hand, standing there with a wand in her hand and a grim smile on her face.

"I knew it." she growled.

"Shut up, Dolores." Harry said, a fire building inside of him, burying the shame that he felt over Greyback.

"You will learn respect." Umbridge replied, leveling her wand at Harry.

"And you'll learn when you're outmatched." Harry countered, his wand mirroring hers. While dueling Greyback, Harry had been hyper aware of everything else that had been going on in the room. Every spell, every person, every motion in the room had been processed in Harry's mind in slow motion.

But now, with Dolores Umbridge standing in front of him, he could think of nothing else but how much he wanted to wipe that fucking smile off her face.

Umbridge opened her mouth to reply. But Harry refused to listen to her speak another foul word. Instead, he simply aimed his wand at the ground at her feet.

" _Confringo!"_

The explosion threw both Harry and Umbridge off their feet, flying away from the spot where Harry had fired the spell. The difference was that Harry had been prepared, correcting himself in mid-air so that he landed on his feet.

Umbridge, on the other hand, flew back and landed in the second row of chairs, landing with a thud, breaking several chairs and a desk on impact. Without a moment to pause, Harry sprinted from his spot, launching himself up the stairs so that he stood over Umbridge.

She was in a truly terrible state, bleeding profusely from a number of places. But it was her leg, which was twisted almost entirely in the wrong direction, that appeared to be her worst injury and the one causing her to howl with pain.

With a quick flip of his wand, Harry Silenced Umbridge, who stared at him in horror.

"You aren't going to die, Dolores." Harry growled, leaning down over her and whispering so that only she could hear what he was saying. "Not matter how much I wish you would, I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to make sure that everyone hears all of the terrible things that you've done. I'm going to sit here and watch you be sentenced to spend the rest of your unnatural life in Azkaban. I'm going to do all of that and I am going to enjoy every second of it."

Umbridge opened her mouth and unleashed what Harry was sure was an incredibly vile speech against Harry. Thankfully, Harry could hear nothing. Instead, he saw her flapping her lips with nothing coming out of them.

"I wonder what your Muggle mother would think of you now."

Immediately, Dolores stopped talking, simply staring at Harry in fear.

"Yes, I know. I looked into your history. Muggle mother, wizard father. Just like me." Harry said. "It's amazing how different two people can be."

Then, with a flick of his wand, he Stunned Dolores, her body flopping back against the hard floor. Standing and turning around, Harry saw that the door had been returned to its normal state and hung open. Standing next to the door was Dolohov, surrounded by Death Eaters.

He looked eyes with Harry for a moment. Then, he reached into his pocket and grabbed something that he threw on the floor, which immediately plunged the room into darkness. Clearly, Dolohov had a supply of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

It took a few minutes for the powder to clear. When it did, Harry was not surprised to see that all of the Death Eaters were gone.

Instead, all he saw were Arthur and Percy standing in the center of the room, surrounded by Aurors and the prone forms of several of the Death Eaters who had been on trial.

"They grabbed Malfoy and left." Arthur said. "I think he was the only one they wanted."

"They're gone?" Harry asked.

"We killed Alecto Carrow." Dawlish said as he climbed towards Harry. "I saw that you got Greyback. Good work."

"I wasn't trying to kill him." Harry growled. "He deserved to go to Azkaban."

"It doesn't matter much what he deserved, son. Not anymore."

Harry retreated from Dawlish at that, his heart pounding once more as he looked as the severed head of Fenrir Greyback. In that moment, all Harry wanted to do was run. He wanted to be alone, away from the world of people that would certainly judge him for his actions, no matter how accidental they may have been.

However, he wasn't able to leave immediately. Instead, he had to report to the Aurors so they could record his statement and ask him a few questions. After nearly three hours of questions and statements, Harry was finally released to go back to Hogwarts. He walked through one of the Floo connections in the Atrium. He appeared on the other side of the connection back in the Headmistress's office.

When he landed, he saw that Minerva was seated behind her desk and Hermione was in one of the chairs on the opposite side. The sound of the Floo Network attracted their attention and both suddenly looked up at Harry, worry evident on their faces. The second Hermione saw Harry, she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around him and squeezing, hugging him so tightly Harry wondered if her arms had suddenly become boa constrictors. She didn't say anything. Instead, she just sobbed into Harry's shoulder and held on as if he was going to suddenly dematerialize in her arms. But Harry knew that if he was in her position, he would have done the same thing. Hermione was his anchor to the rest of the world, his closest friend and confidante. If the news had been reversed, he knew that he would have been racked with worry until he saw her again.

It's why he understood her tears and didn't force her to let go. Instead, he held on tighter, thankful that he had someone like Hermione in his life.

"It's okay." Harry whispered into Hermione's ear, even though it was most definitely not okay. Eventually, Hermione pulled away but instead of separating from him entirely, she put a hand on either side of his face and looked him straight in the eye.

"No, it's not." she said with a sad smile.

"No, it's not." Harry agreed, his voice ragged as the weight of the day threatened to consume him. Hermione took his hand and lead him to the chairs that overlooked the balcony, nearly forcing Harry to sit before pouring him a cup of tea that Harry promptly ignored.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

Harry went to speak and found that he had no voice. All the words that he wanted to say appeared stuck somewhere between his lungs and lips, unable to breach through an invisible barrier caused by the wave of memories that rushed over Harry as he thought about the events of the last several hours.

"Take your time, Harry." Minerva said gently.

"I...killed Greyback." Harry said, his eyes glazed as he stared out the window. He knew that if he focused on what he was looking at, he would have seen Hagrid's Hut, The Black Lake, and the mountains in the distance. Instead, everything he looked at was blurry. His eyes may have been open but still the only thing in his sight was the image of Greyback's decapitated body.

"Oh." Hermione said.

"The Death Eaters attacked the Wizengamot. They wanted to take Lucius, I guess. But they armed those on trial. Greyback...he came after me. I was...just trying to take his arm off. Something that would grow back but would stop him for the moment."

Harry paused. The red line, a sharp gash of blood, then nothing as the head rolled back off the body.

"I missed." Harry said, his whole body trembling as he experienced the murder once more. "I don't know how. He was only a few feet away."

"It's okay, Harry. We know that you didn't mean to do it." Hermione whispered.

"I killed a man, Hermione." Harry muttered before looking up at her. "I've killed before but this was different. I had to look into his eyes as he died. I never wanted that."

"I know you did."

"This is a war, Harry." Minerva interjected. "In war, people die."

"But I'm not a soldier." Harry argued. "I'm a student. I'm-"

"A child?" Minerva said, interrupting Harry's line of thinking. "Harry, my dear boy, you haven't been a child since you saw Cedric Diggory murdered in the graveyard and you know it."

Harry knew that she was right. He knew that it was the trauma of the day speaking for him, trying to pull him back a time in his life when he could feel safe. He also knew that this wasn't the first time that he had been responsible for someone's death. He had used the Firestorm to great effect during the fight in Hogsmeade. There was a high chance that someone had been killed that day.

But this was different. He had gotten the opportunity to look Greyback in the eye as life left him.

"We have all killed at some point, Harry." Minerva reminded him. "I've killed. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Moody, Tonks, hell even Molly Weasley killed over the course of this war. It marks us, changes us. But if I had the choice between killing a few Death Eaters or allowing them another chance to take over, then I will gladly make that sacrifice."

"Think of all the people that Greyback murdered." Hermione reminded Harry. "Think of all the lives he destroyed. He was not an innocent man."

"But when do we draw the line? If we just start playing executioner whenever we want, what stops us from just murdering everyone?"

"There's a difference between murder and defense in the course of battle, Harry." Minerva said. "What you did today, you were defending yourself. I would be surprised if you went out with the sole purpose of killing someone. But, if you are attacked, you have every right to defend yourself. At a certain point, a choice must be made: you or them. If it comes down to that, the world will be a better place if you choose to live."

"But that means taking their life in return."

"It does."

"How do you accept that?"

"Because, as Miss Granger said, I am reminded by the number of lives that I might be saving by ending the life of someone who wishes to bring more evil into the world. It doesn't fix everything. I still wake up thinking about it in the middle of the night sometimes. But, it does help."

Harry wasn't certain that he agreed but at the very least, he understood what Minerva was telling him. For years, Harry had fought a war with both hands tied behind his back and especially now that Voldemort was dead, there was no sense in fighting that way. The Death Eaters were not bound by the will of Voldemort any longer. They would kill Harry and anyone else that stood in their way without any regard for who they were.

If Minerva was right, there would come a time when Harry would have to make a choice: him or them.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and then it opened to reveal Kingsley. He was one of the few upper Ministry officials that Harry had not seen during his questioning, although Harry supposed that was due to Kingsley's role in the government. While Harry was being questioned, Kingsley was likely organizing the next steps in the investigation into the Death Eaters whereabouts.

"Hello." Kingsley said softly. "I need to speak with Harry for a moment."

Here was the Minister of Magic, come to speak with an eighteen year old, and it was clear that he was asking permission. If there was anything that spoke to Harry's potential influence over the Ministry, it was this.

"Fine." Harry said.

"Harry, you don't have to do this." Hermione said. "Not right now."

"It's okay, Hermione." Harry said with a smile. He appreciated just how much she was willing to protect him. "I'll see you later."

Harry left the office with Kingsley, leading him down the hall to the staff room, which he knew would be empty. Harry took a seat on one side of the table and Kingsley sat opposite him. At this distance, Harry was able to see just how much Kingsley appeared to have aged over the last few months. The crow's feet at the edge of his eyes had become deep lines that seemed to have been carved onto his face. His hair, although shaved close to his head as usual, was now almost entirely white.

He looked like he had aged a decade in the last year, which Harry supposed wasn't a surprise considering just how much work he had to do in the wake of Voldemort's death.

"How are you, Harry?" Kingsley asked. Normally, this kind of question would have bothered Harry. But he could tell that Kingsley was struggling just as much as Harry, the weight of the task appointed to him finally starting to wear him down.

"It's been a long day." Harry admitted with a wry grin. "How about you?"

"It's been a long year." Kingsley countered and for a moment, they both chuckled at their collective understatement. "I need your help, Harry."

"I figured as much."

"I will ask you the first question, which I am going to assume you will turn down."

"No, I will not join the Aurors."

"I understand," Kingsley said, "but you know that I had to ask."

"I know."

"Can you come talk with the Aurors on the case? They're good Aurors but most of them don't have any personal connection to the Death Eaters."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Harry asked.

"Yes and no. It certainly makes them impartial but they don't know the Death Eaters well enough to understand how they think. You know Lucius. You know Dolohov."

"I understand how Dolohov fights. I don't know him personally. Talk to Minerva for that."

"We have and she's given us a good start but we need something more, Harry."

"I know." Harry replied. "Yes, I will help where I can. But you should also bring Ron in."

"Ron?"

"He's an Auror and he was with me every step of the way. If I know how Dolohov fights, then so does Ron."

"I'll consider that." Kingsley said pensively. "I do have one more question. Do you intend to go after Dolohov yourself?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you intending to circumvent the Ministry of Magic's investigation and...operate one on your own?"

The phrasing of this question was strange at first. Then, Harry realized what Kingsley was actually asking.

"No, I will not be using Dumbledore's Army or The Order of the Phoenix as my own personal army to take down the Death Eaters." Harry replied, shocked that Kingsley would suggest that.

"Alright." Kingsley said, a look of disappointment on his face.

"Kingsley, we can do this the right way." Harry said, doing his best to encourage the Minister of Magic.

"I'm not so certain." Kingsley replied. "We've spent months looking for them and have found almost nothing. The nature of magic means that hiding is just too easy."

"You're not wrong." Harry said, thinking of the year he spent hiding in the woods. "But I have faith in you. I have faith in Meredith and Gawain, too. We just need a break, something that gets us closer to them."

"It's not just going to fall in our laps, Harry."

"That's why you keep looking." Harry fired back. "Even if it takes a decade to capture all of the Death Eaters, you keep looking. One day, all that work will pay off and we'll be able to take them down."

"You seem certain of that."

"It seemed impossible that we were going to defeat Voldemort. But we did."

" _You_ did."

"It was a group effort." Harry countered. "Without a dozen different people, I would have lost. I had help. This time around, we have the entire Ministry on this, actually working to help people for once. I have faith, Kingsley, even if you don't."

Kingsley considered Harry for a moment before standing.

"You know, I think that you are going to make an excellent Professor here at Hogwarts." Kingsley said with a smile.

"Thank you." Harry said earnestly.

"But I think that, if you wanted, you could do wonderful things at the Ministry. You would be an excellent Minister of Magic."

"I highly doubt that." Harry said. "I'm not exactly the political type."

"That's not true." Kingsley replied. "Your deal with the Malfoys says so."

"How do you know about that?"

"I'm the Minister of Magic, Harry. There's very little I don't know when I do my job correctly." Kingsley replied. "Personally, I think it's a good move. It gets the Malfoys out of the country and gets a bunch of Wizengamot seats out of the hands of Pureblood families."

"But you know that the Malfoys are supposed to remain in the country, even after the trial. Robards ordered that as part of their plea bargain."

"I'm aware." was Kingsley's short reply. He grabbed his cloak and threw it over his shoulders. "Consider what I said about the Ministry, Harry. I know that you are going to do great things at Hogwarts but don't discount the idea of working for the Ministry at some point."

"Will do." Harry said.

"By the way, you should contact Ron."

"But he's out of the country."

"Not anymore." Kingsley said. "After the attack, Ron's team was recalled to be placed on the Death Eater case. They should be back in London within the next few hours."

"That's a good choice."

"I thought so too." Kingsley said. "Get some rest, Harry. You look like you need it."

"Likewise, Minister."

Kingsley smiled just enough so that the corners of his mouth twitched and then he turned, leaving Harry alone. Harry relished the silence for roughly ten minutes before he stood and dragged his body back to his dorm. Normally, this walk would take Harry only a few minutes but today, it took almost half an hour with his feet barely able to be lifted off the ground. Despite the fact that it was still only mid-day, Harry felt as if he had been awake for hours.

The only time in recent memory he could remember being this tired? May 2nd. Harry supposed that there was certainly some similarities between the two days, although the fact that he hadn't been killed and then brought back to life was a bonus in favor of today.

When Harry arrived back at the Head Dorm, he was surprised that it wasn't empty. Not only that but Hermione was not the only person present. Harry looked around the room and saw that all of his friends at school were present. Hermione and Luna sat on the couch while Ginny and Parvati sat in the matching armchairs by the fireplace.

But the biggest surprise was the redhead sitting at Harry's desk. If Harry hadn't been looking closely, he wouldn't have recognized his oldest friend. For years, Ron's hair had been long but now, it had been shaved down to almost nothing. In addition to that, it was clear that Ron had lost a fair amount of weight since the last time he had seen the newly minted Auror. Ron had never been one to carry much extra weight but he had developed a lot of muscle that had clearly disappeared since his days at Hogwarts.

Ron stood with that same goofy grin that he had always had and approached Harry.

"Mate, you look like you've been better."

Harry was speechless. "Kingsley said you wouldn't be home for another few hours."

"That was until I heard that you were present for the attack." Ron said. "Once I knew about that, I worked with the local Ministry to get me on the first Portkey back home. I got back about forty minutes ago."

"Have you seen your family?"

"Right now, Mum and Dad can wait. I'm needed here."

Harry smiled at that. Neither Harry nor Ron were particularly open people. In the past, they had both struggled silently with their feelings and how to work through them. Ron had fought for years to convince himself that he wasn't good enough for Hermione while Harry had always balked against seeking the help of others, preferring to push on alone until Hermione inevitably told him out stupid and stubborn he was being.

So it was nice to hear Ron talk openly about their friendship, knowing that Harry did need his support that day. He needed all of them and their presence nearly overwhelmed him. In the past, he knew that he would have deflected from them, making sure that he hid his fear and his trauma so that no one could see it.

But he found, in that moment, that he couldn't do that. Not anymore.

"Thank you." Harry whispered, his voice failing him. "I appreciate you being here."

Ginny, the boldest and surest of his friends, stepped forward and placed her arms around him. They hadn't really spoken in weeks, each of them afraid of what the next step of their relationship would mean. But when he saw her, he knew that he could no longer hide from her nor she from him. Unfortunately, now wasn't the right time to talk.

When Hermione had first seen him in the Headmaster's Office, he had known that they would be there to console each other. But Hermione's stress and concern in that moment had meant that Harry was just as worried about her as she was for him.

Harry had no worry for Ginny at the moment and Ginny knew it. The moment Ginny's arms wrapped tightly around him, he broke, his head dropping onto her shoulder as the tears began to fall. In the past, Harry may have been embarrassed about having a breakdown like this in front of all of his friends. But things were different now. Harry was no longer afraid of being vulnerable with them, no longer frightened that they might abandon him if he showed weakness.

He knew these people like the back of his hand and he knew that they would never abandon him, no matter how weak he felt.

For the next several hours, the group of friends did what they so rarely had the time to do: sit and talk. Harry knew that they were actively working to avoid discussing weightier topics, something forced Harry to feel a wave of gratitude for his friends.

Eventually, the room's population started to dwindle. Parvati had to go finish work for Divination. Luna had forgotten to eat dinner and left to go to the kitchens to get something to eat. This left the original Trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione with Ginny, the newest member of Harry's inner circle. In the years to come, these four people would be the foundation of some of the biggest social changes in their society.

Today? They were simply four good friends (and siblings) supporting each other as they all struggled through a dark time.

"So, where were you?" Ginny finally asked her brother.

"I can't say." Ron replied. "I can say that it was hot, dry and there was a severe lack of resources around."

"Does that explain why you look like a stick?" Harry asked, although even a joke as simple as that seemed to take quite a bit of effort.

"It does." Ron replied. "Seriously, the last time I had three meals in a single day was the day we arrived on location. We went through a day of orientation so that we knew the landscape and could properly identify our targets. After that, we were on our own."

"That sounds terrible." Hermione said.

"It was and it wasn't. The environment was insane but the work was incredible. You know how we spent years just reacting to everything? We never had the chance to plan for anything. We just had to act. Well, this was the exact opposite. While it was a bit of a downer that we weren't actually able to execute our plan before we were called back, we had spent the entire time that we were there planning a single mission that would take probably a grand total of about four hours."

"Did we just listen to Ronald Bilius Weasley wax eloquent about planning?" Ginny asked Harry.

"I don't know if eloquent is the right word." Hermione said.

"Guys, leave him alone." Harry said. "He clearly hasn't eaten anything in a month. He's losing his mind."

Harry, Ginny and Hermione joined in laughing at Ron, who sat and took his abuse with a smile, a sure sign of Ron's increasing maturity. Over the years, making fun of Ron hadn't been a particularly fun venture simply because he didn't react well to it, often throwing a fit of some sort. Now, he took the joke and kept right on rolling.

It made Harry smile to see just how much his friend had evolved over the last few months. He was calmer, far more patient and generally more well-rounded than he had been before he had gone to the Academy. Some of that was certainly due to his time with the Aurors but Harry suspected something else: time. Time on his own, time to develop into his own person, time to mourn his brother, and, most importantly, time away from Harry and Hermione. Without their assistance (and without the attention they normally would have drained from Ron), he had blossomed into one of the finest Auror recruits the Ministry had ever seen.

But he had also become an upstanding person, the kind of person that Harry had become friends with years earlier. The person that had disappeared on May 2nd of last year in the face of overwhelming tragedy. Harry was just glad to see that person starting to emerge once more.

"Speaking of eating, I have a request for you three." Ron said, his face suddenly turning a pinkish color. "I would like to invite you all to dinner."

"Told you he was hungry." Ginny said, causing Hermione and Harry to roar with laughter.

Ron pushed on, ignoring Ginny. "I told Angelina that when I returned from my mission, we would have dinner with all of our friends."

Immediately, Harry, Ginny and Hermione froze. They had heard the same word but none of them knew exactly how to react to it. Finally, it was Hermione that spoke.

"Angelina?"

Ron did a little shake that seemed like he was trying to talk but was also trying to breathe at the same time. Clearly, the combination was not working. Finally, he swallowed and pressed on.

"Yeah, Angelina. We've been, uh, dating for a few months now."

"Really?" Hermione said.

"How are we just hearing about this now?" Harry asked.

"How am _I_ just hearing about this now!?" Ginny shouted, punching her older brother in the arm. "I know that you were fighting with Harry and you had screwed up your relationship with Hermione but what the hell did I do to you?"

"You went to school." Ron said simply. "You went to school and I went to the Academy."

Ginny considered that for a moment. "Fair point."

"We started dating around Halloween." Ron explained. "We had been trying to find a time to get everyone together before the holidays but I hadn't found the chance to talk to you two yet. Then I got sent...away and the timing of it never really worked out. Now, I have the opportunity to tell you and I'm telling you."

Ron finished that off with an incredibly pointed look in Ginny's direction. Ginny responded like any good younger sister would: she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I would love to find some time next weekend and get dinner at The Three Broomsticks." Ron said. "That is if McGonagall doesn't cancel Hogsmeade visits."

"That's not our only concern." Harry said.

"Really? What is?"

Harry was just about to tell Ron about the collapsed hallway when he heard a terrible crack that sounded like a combination between an explosion and a thunderbolt. There was only one problem: the sound had definitely originated from inside the castle. Immediately, Harry was on his feet, wand in hand, as he sprinted out the door with the others on his heels as they sprinted down the hallway to the main staircase.

Looking down to the ground floor, Harry could see a wave of dust coming from the direction of the Entrance Hall and Great Hall. Without thinking, Harry sprinted down the stairs, fighting through waves of people running in the opposite direction. In the back of his mind, he knew that he was likely running in the wrong direction but he also knew that he didn't care. He wasn't going to run from a situation where he could help.

Thankfully, this was a situation where Harry could help. When he got to the ground floor, he immediately saw a massive pile of stone and brick on the floor of the Entrance Hall. Looking up, it was clear that the rubble had come from there, judging by the giant hole in the roof of the Entrance Hall. As Harry got closer to the rubble, he suddenly realized he could hear voices, someone shouting from underneath the pile.

With a quick flip of his wand, Harry began pulling away pieces of the rubble, setting the larger stones to the side of the Entrance Hall and destroying the smaller pieces entirely. He had already seen that fixing the roof would likely be impossible. If that was the case, then the less cleanup they had to do later, the better.

Finally, Harry found the source of the voice, a small girl, no older than second year, who was laying at the bottom of the pile, her wand out in front of her. A rock the size of a steamer trunk rested on her leg, which was turned awkwardly. It was clear that the leg was broken and that the girl was in tremendous amounts of pain. Still, she had possess the wherewithal to grab her wand and levitate the rocks that fell from the ceiling, keeping them from crushing her.

"What's your name?" Harry asked the girl as he worked on clearing everything from around her.

"Kora." she said, wincing in pain.

"OK. Kora, listen to me. I am going to lift this rock off your leg. It's going to hurt. But I need you to be strong. I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?"

Kora looked weak and frightened but she nodded her head. Harry stood and turned back to Hermione.

"Work on searching through the rest of the rubble. See if you can find someone." Harry said to her before turning to Ron. "Get Madam Pomfrey."

"You got it." Ron said before sprinting from the room.

"What do you want me to do?" Ginny asked.

"You are with me." Harry said, turning back to Kora. "I'm going to lift this rock. When I do that, pull Kora out from under it so that I can set it back down."

"Right." Ginny said. Harry leaned in towards Ginny and whispered in her ear.

"I'll also need you to be ready in case she passes out. That leg is crushed under there. There's a very real possibility that she's going to start bleeding profusely when we lift that rock."

"Why can't we wait for Madam Pomfrey?" Ginny asked nervously, her eyes shifting between Harry and Kora.

"Because the longer we wait, the more likely she is to start panicking. If she does that and then moves one wrong way, the bleeding might get worse. If that happens while she has a boulder stuck on her leg, then we're in trouble."

"Got it." Ginny said before marching passed Harry and kneeling behind Kora's head, placing her hands under Kora's arms.

"Are you ready, Kora?" Harry asked as he noticed that a crowd had started to form around the outside of the Entrance Hall, everyone watching every move that he made.

"Yes." Kora whispered.

Harry aimed his wand at the boulder and with a swish and a flick, the boulder started to levitate. Just as it did, Kora's screams filled the air as she heard the sounds of her crushed bones trying to return to their original position, despite the fact that they were now in several pieces. At the same time, Ginny tugged Kora out of the way of the boulder, allowing Harry to set it back down.

At that same moment, Kora did the one thing she wasn't allowed to do: she passed out. Thankfully, just as Harry started working on Healing her leg, Madam Pomfrey raced from the opposite end of the Entrance Hall and took over Kora's care, assuring Harry that the girl would be fine.

Harry stood and observed the carnage. From what Harry could see, Hermione had pulled two other students from the wreckage, which stretched from the front gate of the school to where Harry stood, about two-thirds of the length of the Entrance Hall. Thankfully, the students seemed to be okay with only minor injuries.

All Harry could think was that this was the second time in recent memory that a section of the school had collapsed and that they were incredibly lucky that no one was dead. But the second that thought crossed Harry's mind, he forced it away.

He didn't know what the future would bring and jinxing it like that just seemed foolish.


	31. Thirty-One

The mess in the Entrance Hall took hours to clean up. Much like every other instance of this kind, the castle had refused to be fixed. Each time it had been attempted, the rubble would once again fall from the ceiling. Once Minerva had decided that they were no longer going to attempt to fix the castle, it had been a relatively easy fix, if not a short one. While vanishing the rubble would have normally been the way to go, some of the rubble was nearly the size of Hagrid, which made vanishing it challenging for all but the most talented witches and wizards. Instead, the rubble was slowly transferred outside where he was then broken down into smaller bricks, which Minerva hoped they would be able to use to fix the roof over the summer.

How she planned to do that, Harry didn't know and he suspected that she didn't have a clue how to do that either.

With the stress of the day, Minerva had given Harry, Hermione and Ginny permission to return to The Burrow for a night under the guard of a small team of Aurors. Ron, who lived in a small flat with Percy, had also elected to return to his childhood home for an evening.

"I'm surprised she let us come home." Ginny said as she took her seat in front of the fireplace. When they had informed Mrs. Weasley that they would be coming home, she had instantly set about making a massive dinner for all of them. In fact, there had been so much food that even with all four of them taking a third helping, there was still more than half the food leftover.

For nearly an hour after dinner, Arthur had regaled them all with stories from the new Ministry of Magic before both he and Molly had turned in, leaving the four of them alone in the living room. It had been a tragically long day and yet, despite the late hour, none of them seemed interested in sleeping.

"She knows us." Hermione replied. "Plus, there are something like a dozen Aurors surrounding the property right now, not to mention that we have one of the best young Aurors out there."

"Plus, you know the Dumbledore of her age and The Man Who Lived." Ginny added with a smirk.

"And none of us are the dangerous one." Harry said with a wink in Ginny's direction. Ginny's face lit up at the compliment. But almost immediately, a strange shadow came over her, as if something dark and nefarious had crossed her mind.

"Ginny?"

Ginny looked up at Harry, doing her best to cover up her strange behavior with a fake smile. Harry raised his eyebrows at her, clearly not believing her cover. Ginny sighed and shook her head.

"We'll talk later." Ginny said before turning to the rest of the group. "So, what is happening to the school?"

"Professor McGonagall said we weren't supposed to talk about it." Hermione said.

"Hermione, it's Ron and Ginny." said Harry incredulously. "You and I both know that we're going to tell them."

Hermione considered Harry for a moment and then rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

With a smile, Harry turned back to Ron and Ginny.

"The castle is...broken." Harry said, finding the words hard to say. "Something about the Battle of Hogwarts has affected the magic that held the castle together."

"Is that why some of the castle hasn't been fixed since the Battle?" Ginny asked.

"That's what Professor McGonagall believes." Hermione replied. "At the moment, she doesn't believe there is a way to fix it. She said that she's been talking with some of the world's experts on these kind of places and they've found nothing."

"So the castle's just going to fall down eventually?" asked Ron, a look of horror in his eyes.

"If we don't do anything to stop it, then yes." Harry said stubbornly. When Hermione looked at him in surprise, Harry pressed on. "There's got to be a way. The Founders may have been exceptional witches and wizards but they had to follow the same rules that we have to follow now. That means that somewhere out there, there has to be an answer."

"And what if there isn't?" Hermione questioned harshly. "I know you want to fix the castle, so do I. But this is magic that is over a thousand years old. There's not going to be a book or an answer key."

Ron and Ginny chuckled to each other, which caused both Harry and Hermione to look at them.

"What?" Hermione snapped.

"I never thought that I would see the day when Hermione said that there was question that couldn't be answered with a book." Ron said with a Cheshire grin on his face.

"Oh, be quiet." Hermione said, although Harry noticed that she was smiling while she said it. "Anyway, I want to find the answer but I don't know where they could be. I've spent most of my life in the Hogwarts library and I've never found a single book that was related to the construction of the school."

"Could it be that someone took them?" Ron asked. "Like with the Horcrux books?"

"Why would someone take the books?" Harry countered.

"Because if you know how to build something, you can easily use that to tear it down." Ron reasoned. "It wouldn't be hard to research how to perform the counters to all of the Charms and wards that have kept the castle upright."

"If someone would have removed them, then they would be in the Headmaster's Office." Hermione said. "That means that if you want to even bother starting to research this particular subject, you would have to ask McGonagall if she knows where the books are."

"It's a place to start." Harry said with a shrug. He knew that it wasn't a good plan. Hell, it wasn't really even a plan at all. But it would put them closer to finding the truth of the nature of Hogwarts Castle, a mystery that had been hidden away from the world for over a millennium.

"It is." Hermione said as the room went silent. Harry knew they were all thinking the same thing.

What happened if Hogwarts fell? Hogwarts was the only school of its kind in Great Britain. Minerva had said that there were former students that were looking to start a new school in Exeter. Would everyone go there instead? Would they try to rebuild the school?

Or would they simply give up and develop a different way of teaching the youth about magic?

"Well, I'm off to bed." Ginny said, stretching as she stood, causing the hem of her shirt to raise just above the waist of her jeans. Instinctively, Harry's eyes flashed to the bit of uncovered skin before zipping back up to meet Ginny's eyes before he got caught staring. It was immediately clear that he had not been fast enough.

The smirk on her face let him know that she had caught him. Harry blushed and looked away rather than continue to stare at the youngest Weasley. Ginny placed a hand on Harry's shoulder as she walked by, which caused Harry to turn and watch her leave.

"What's up with the two of you?" Ron asked. In the past, Harry would have been concerned that Ron was going to deck him if he had the wrong answer. Now, he just seemed curious.

"I'm not exactly certain." Harry admitted.

"You still like her." Hermione said confidently. "Everyone can see it."

Harry turned to Ron, who nodded in agreement. "Mate, you look at her like Bill used to look at Fleur. Like Bill still looks at Fleur."

"When did you start noticing things like that?" Hermione asked sharply. For a moment, Harry worried that the mood was suddenly going to shift. This was the first time that Harry had ever heard Hermione and Ron address a subject that could have lead them to talking about their failed relationship.

But Hermione and Ron had both changed quite a bit over the last few months. Instead of firing back like he may have in the past, Ron calmly turned to Hermione and replied.

"It was hard to miss. Bill had always been kind of a ladies man. But Fleur did something to him that was so obvious that even I noticed it."

"It wasn't because you were drooling over her, was it?" Harry laughed.

"It probably didn't hurt." Ron admitted. "But it was clear that Bill felt something for her that he had never felt before. He basically dated one woman and then married her, which was a miracle in Mum's eyes. She had been convinced that he was going to be a bachelor forever."

"Now she's just got Charlie to worry about." Hermione giggled.

"Yeah, well Charlie might be more in love with his dragons than he is other people." Ron replied. "Anyway, my point is that you still love Ginny."

Harry opened his mouth, intending to deny Ron's accusation. But he didn't. In fact, he didn't say anything for one very important reason.

Harry knew that Ron was right.

He had never stopped loving Ginny. Last May, when he had told Ginny that they wouldn't be getting back together, he had been right to say that he wasn't ready for a relationship at the time. But that had been months ago. Time had moved on and things were different now.

But was Harry different? That was the crux of Harry's consternation. He had dated Cho for only a few months and then broke up with her because he wasn't willing to give up his opportunity at Hogwarts to spend more time with her.

That had been his most successful relationship to date. What did that say about Harry? Did it honestly say anything? The fact that he had been willing to even consider a relationship with Cho told him that he was ready to start moving forward with his life again, no longer bound by the immense sense of loss he had felt after The Battle of Hogwarts. But, he had also been smart enough and aware enough to understand that he had priorities. He wanted to do well in school and he wanted to be an influential figure, both at Hogwarts and (in a stunning development) at the Ministry of Magic.

At the moment, Harry could be in a relationship with Ginny and not fear that he would lose her to his schooling. They could see each other as often as they wanted while they were both in school. It would be after they had both graduated that they would need to figure something out. But Harry knew that if that was what they both wanted, then they would figure something out in the end.

In either case, Harry knew that he had to do something. He needed to say something to her. Last May, he had told her that he wanted her to be happy. That was still true.

But it was no longer the entirety of the truth. While he would always wish for Ginny's happiness, regardless of their relationship status, Harry found that he truly wanted her to be happy with him. He knew he couldn't wait any longer. He needed to do something about this situation today.

He just didn't have any idea on how to do that, a sentiment that he said when he confirmed that Ron's suspicions were correct.

"Knocking on her door would probably be a good idea." Hermione said with a smirk.

"Right." Harry said. Now that he knew what he wanted, his feet seemed like they had been glued to the floor.

Ron stood up in front of Harry and placed his hands on Harry's shoulders.

"Harry, you love her and I know for a fact that she loves you." Ron said firmly. "Now, you are probably only going to get one more chance with her. That means that you have a choice to make. If you think you're ready, even with all of the other bullshit going on in your lives, you climb those stairs. If you're not, then you can wait but you know that she will not wait for you forever."

Harry knew that. Ginny was not the type to sit and wait for much of anything, especially not something that she had already been told wasn't coming to her. She had broken up with Neville just over a month ago. If there was any time to do this, it was now.

Harry smiled at both Ron and Hermione before he bolted from the room, nearly sprinting up the stairs until he found himself standing in front of Ginny's door. In the past, Harry may have lost his nerve or hesitated.

No more. Harry knew what he wanted as he knocked on the door gently, careful not to wake anyone up. Behind the door, Harry could hear some movement before the door opened, revealing Ginny, already dressed for bed. She wore a bright red t-shirt that clashed with her red hair horribly and a pair of athletic shorts that barely came down passed the edge of her t-shirt. Again, Harry's eyes were dragged down to the sight of her almost bare legs, as if a magnet had been embedded behind his eyes.

"Like what you see, Harry?" Ginny said with a smirk. Knowing that he had again been caught, Harry looked up and his eyes met Ginny's. Almost immediately, he knew that something was wrong. In the past, Ginny had flirted dangerously with Harry on an almost daily basis, intentionally trying to drive him insane. In those moments, her eyes had blazed with energy, a fire that mesmerized Harry.

That night, the fire was gone. Her brown eyes were still as beautiful as ever but they looked hurt and broken as if the blaze that had kept her going was slowly starting to go out.

"Ginny?" Harry said gingerly.

"Hi, Harry." Ginny said, her eyes wet with tears.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't do this anymore."

"You can't do what?"

"Be friends with you." Ginny said, grabbing Harry's shirt and pulling him close so that the top of her head rested in the center of Harry's chest. "I tried. I tried so hard to be a good friend. I supported you when you were with Cho. I didn't talk to you about Neville. I've been there for you every step of the way this year and I...just can't do it anymore."

Finally, she looked up at Harry. The fire in her eyes was back but now it was different, darker like it had been corrupted by the weight of their friendship on her heart.

"I knew that you weren't going to come back to me. The second I saw you at Hogwarts last May, and I saw how different you were, I knew." Ginny admitted. "But I didn't dare think it. You were going to defeat Voldemort and then we were going to be happy. But I was right. You were different and I was different and things couldn't go back to the way they were, no matter how much I wanted that."

"But I can't stand it anymore, Harry. I can't stand looking at you and not being able to touch you, not being able to be with you. I love you. I love your hair and I love your glasses, despite the fact that you desperately need a new pair. I love how goddamn noble you are, even when you don't need to be. I love that you are just as stubborn as I am, which shouldn't even be possible."

Ginny stepped in closer so that her face was only several inches away from Harry. That distance seemed to have awakened some of Harry's sense as he could now feel the softness of her hands on his arms, the scent of the shampoo on her hair.

It drove him wild, just like everything else about Ginevra Weasley.

"I know that you worry about the fact that I only love you because you are Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. When I was eleven, I fell in love with a fairy tale because that's what I wanted."

Then, just as suddenly as she had disappeared, _Ginny_ was back, doing what she did best: fighting for what she wanted.

"When I kissed you on the train, I thought you would come chasing after me. When you didn't, I knew that it was over. I don't want a fairy tale anymore, Harry. I want something that's real. I want someone that is real. I want you. "

In that moment, after all of the beautiful words that she had said, Harry desperately wanted to come up with something that would match her eloquence, word for word. But that wasn't Harry. He chose words for efficiency, choosing to express his point succinctly rather than with a flourish.

So, he told the truth, plain and simple.

"So do I." Harry finally said, his voice thick. "That's what I came up here to say."

"What?" Ginny asked, stunned into silence.

"You are what I want, Gin." Harry said, leaning close so that he could whisper in her ear. "Last May, I couldn't have been what you wanted. Hell, some days I'm still not certain if I can be what you want. But I want to try."

Ginny pulled back, staring deep into Harry's eyes. She looked wary, as if Harry might dematerialize in front of her, a horrible trick played on her by a sad heart.

"You never talked to me after the train."

"I was afraid. I'm still afraid. I didn't want to lose you."

"You aren't going to lose me." Ginny said. "I want you. Just you. Nothing more."

"I do, too."

"Are you sure?"

"About almost nothing." Harry admitted. "But I know two things. I know that I love you and I know that I want to try. Things won't be perfect but I know that I will regret every day that I live if I didn't try to make this work again."

"That sounds good enough to me." Ginny said. "You know, being willing to try isn't very romantic."

"No, it's not. But it is the truth and I figure that matters more than whether or not I'm being a romantic."

"Damn straight." Ginny said before wrapping her arms around Harry's neck, pulling him close. They stood there for quite some time, just holding onto each other, each of them afraid that if they let go, the other would change their mind. While they stood there, Harry relished their proximity, something that he hadn't realized just how much he had missed since the last time he had dared to hold Ginny Weasley in his arms.

It had been the day before he had left with Dumbledore to go retrieve the Horcrux. The day before they found the fake Horcrux. The day before Snape killed Dumbledore and the whole world changed.

That had been almost two years ago. In just that short amount of time, almost everything that Harry knew about his life was different. But there were a few constants, and despite the number of times that Harry had tried to push her away, Ginny Weasley had been one of them. Even when he had been away from her, she had always been on his mind.

"I love you, Harry." Ginny whispered into his ear.

"I love you." Harry said, knowing that it was the first time that he had ever said those words to anyone like that. Over the years, he had told Ron and Hermione how much he loved them and he had meant it. But this was different. This was Harry admitting that there was someone who was more important to his life than he was.

For years, even when he hadn't known it, it had been Ginny. Now, he could hold her in his arms and tell her exactly how he felt.

Ginny leaned up and kissed Harry gently, a warmth spreading over Harry that was all at once foreign and familiar. He knew that he had felt this feeling before but this was different. In the past, there had always been some kind of uncertainty associated with his relationship with Ginny. Whether it was the fact that she was his best friend's sister or the fact that he should have been training to fight Voldemort rather than go on a date, there had always been something keeping Harry from committing entirely.

That was no longer the case. In that moment, all Harry felt was certain that he wanted Ginny and Ginny only.

"About damn time."

Harry turned to see Ron and Hermione standing at the bottom of the stairs, Ron with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. Hermione stood behind him, an eager smile on her face.

"Were you spying on us?" Ginny asked fiercely.

"We were trying to go to bed." Ron fired back. "To be honest, I expected you to take Harry into your room the moment he opened his mouth."

"I would not do that!" Ginny replied.

"I beg to differ." Hermione said with a smile, clearly indicating their previous night spent together during the summer.

"See, even Hermione agrees!" Ron said.

"If that's what you want, fine." Ginny said before grabbing Harry by the front of his shirt and pulling Harry into the room, slamming the door behind them. Immediately, Ginny pushed Harry up against the door and then threw herself at him, her lips crashing against his wildly. Harry couldn't help but laugh as he could hear Ron registering his protests outside the door, although he must not have been too serious about them since he only barked at them for a few seconds before walking away.

All the while, Ginny's hands had wandered up his chest under his shirt, his skin tingling at her touch. Despite every desire to throw Ginny on her bed, tear off her clothes and have his way with her, he resisted, pulling away from Ginny.

"We can't do this now." Harry whispered.

"Why not?" Ginny asked as she nibbled on his ear, whispering seductively.

"Because your Mum and Dad are quite literally upstairs."

"Cast _Muffliato_ then. They won't hear a thing." Ginny said, her hands starting to wander towards the hem of his jeans.

"Yes. But they will notice that I'm not in my room in the morning." Harry said, finally taking Ginny's hands and pulling them away as she had started to reach for his zipper. Harry leaned forward and kissed Ginny again, drinking in every part of her, everything that he had missed over the last few months.

"Listen, I want to do this right." Harry said when they finally came up for air. "I don't want to just jump in bed with you on the night we get back."

"I knew that nobility of yours would be a problem someday." Ginny taunted, although Harry could tell that she was kidding. "I get where you're coming from. I just missed you. I missed being with you."

"Well, assuming we do this right, we'll have all the time in the world." Harry replied. "So, I'm going to go back to my room. We can tell your parents in the morning that we've decided to get back together, which I'm certain will make your Mum happy, and then we can decide where to go from there."

"OK." Ginny said. Harry knew that patience was a struggle for Ginny, even more so than it was for Harry. But he also knew that she understood his point. So, Ginny kissed him once more (this time, she pressed her body up against him, causing an immediate and noticeable reaction) before bidding him good night.

When the door closed, leaving Harry alone on the step outside her room, he couldn't help but smile. That smile remained on his face all the way up the stairs as he entered Fred and George's old room, collapsing onto the bed.

That night, he dreamed of Ginny, much as he had dozens of times over the last few years. But unlike most mornings, when he woke up the next day and greeted Ginny on the step outside her room, he had no need to hold back how he felt about her, kissing her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down towards her, nearly causing the pair of them to tumble down the stairs.

He had that same stupid grin plastered on his face when he sat down for breakfast with the Weasleys. Mrs. Weasley had nearly fallen over herself trying to hug Harry and Ginny when they had announced to the family that they were getting back together while Mr. Weasley had simply sat back and smiled.

It had been such a wonderful morning. But, all things that were good seemed to come to an end when Hermione spoke up.

"I talked to Ron about the interview with the Prophet." Hermione said to Harry as he stuffed several bits of sausage into his mouth. Thankfully, Arthur had already gone to work and Molly was busy working on cleaning up so they were able to have this conversation with only Ginny listening it. Both Ron and Hermione understood that Harry would now be including Ginny in these kind of conversations.

Unlike Cho, she had proven herself trustworthy to know the whole story dozens of times over.

"Sounds like a good idea." Ron added. "I'm in."

"You're sure?" Harry asked as he choked down his food. "Did Hermione tell you about their original request?"

"You mean that they only wanted to talk to the two of you?" Ron asked. "Yeah, she told me. Listen, I get it. You two went back to school and I didn't."

"Well, we're going to need to get together with Kingsley and McGonagall before the interview at some point." Hermione said. "Make sure that we know what we're allowed to say."

"They also should use that time to figure out what the reporter is going to ask." Harry added. "They can shut down any questions that start to address things we aren't ready to reveal to the public."

"Are you guys still going to go through with this even if the castle is falling apart?" Ginny asked.

"That's a good point." Ron replied.

"We still need to do it." Harry countered. "If we don't find a way to fix the school, then it won't matter. But if we can figure something out, then we'll have already started the process of rebuilding the school's reputation."

"Plus, we'll be letting the public in on parts of our story that they've been desperate to hear." Hermione added. "They'll be more willing to listen to us when we ask them to support Hogwarts if the general populace feels as if we've been honest with them."

"But you won't be honest with them." Ginny said. "You'll only tell them part of the truth."

"We've done that for everyone's safety." Harry replied as a thought suddenly popped into his mind. He turned in his seat to face Ginny.

"You know almost the whole story." Harry said. "I have an idea. I'll tell you the whole story and then you can tell me which parts you would leave out."

"You assume that I'll leave parts out."

Ron leaned around Harry so that he could see Ginny. "You will. There are parts of this story that I didn't know. When he told me, I immediately understood why he had kept them secret."

Harry knew that Ron was glazing over the fact that he had been pissed that Harry had kept those same secrets from him but at the moment, that wasn't particularly important.

Harry turned to look at Ron and Hermione, tacitly asking for their approval. This wasn't just his story. Each of them had played a vital part in it and each of them had parts of it that they wished to be left out of the public record: Harry's venture into the forest, Ron's departure, and Hermione's torture at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.

He was now silently asking them permission to relay everything, the good and the bad, to Ginny. So that she could understand, yes. But Harry knew they both understood that he also felt the need to tell Ginny everything, to include her in the parts of the story that no one else knew, and to show that he trusted her. Both of them nodded silently.

Harry stood and took Ginny by the hand, leading her out of the house and towards the lake where Harry was certain they couldn't be overheard. Once they both settled into the chairs around the fire that Harry had conjured, he started the tale. He told as much as he knew about Voldemort and his Horcruxes. He reminded her about the Diary and told her about the Ring. He told her how his own hunt began with Dumbledore on the night of the Headmaster's death. He told her about the fake locket and his decision to leave Hogwarts.

Bill and Fleur's wedding lead to their escape to Grimmauld Place and then their excursion to the Ministry of Magic where they found The Locket. He told her how Yaxley had followed them back, forcing them to abandon their safehouse and go on the run.

"The Locket, it..affected us." Harry said.

"Like the Diary had?" Ginny asked.

"Not exactly." Harry replied. "While it didn't take over our minds, it make us irritable and quick to anger and it affected those who were already prone to dark, jealous thoughts more than others."

Immediately, Ginny picked up on his meaning.

"Ron?"

Harry nodded. "You have to remember, we were working with almost no information. We had some guesses regarding the Horcruxes and where they were hidden, but it was nothing more than guesses. Ron, whose family was on the frontlines fighting Voldemort daily, started to spiral. Eventually, he broke. He said...some things that he would later come to regret and then he left."

Ginny immediately looked as if she was ready to go off and murder Ron in that very moment.

"He left?"

"He wasn't in his right mind. Everything he said was something that he felt in the deepest darkest parts of his heart but it wasn't really him."

"I'll kill him." Ginny growled.

"You won't." Harry said calmly. "This was why Ron and I have been fighting so much over the last few months. We've been fighting this same battle since he walked out on Hermione and I. For the longest time, he didn't understand what he did to us and it was compounded by Fred's death. It's taken me quite some time but I have forgiven Ron for what he did."

"How? He left you. He left _Hermione._ How could you forgive him?"

"Because I knew that he didn't really mean it. Everyone has terrible thoughts somewhere deep in the recesses of their mind. The Horcrux was what brought them out. He knew immediately that he had made a mistake and spent weeks trying to get back to us. Now, he's spent months trying to restore our trust in him. He's made the effort to prove he's not the same person that walked out on us and I believe that he's changed for the better."

"If you say so." Ginny said, clearly uncertain if she believed him.

Harry then explained how they came to Godric's Hollow where he did manage to find his parents but also where his wand was irreparably broken. Harry told her how he saw the Doe in the woods and followed it, which lead him to the Sword of Gryffindor, which he and a returned Ron used to destroy the Horcrux.

He told her about their visit with Luna's father which immediately lead to their capture by the Snatchers. In short order, he told her about the events at Malfoy Manor. Ginny recoiled as he told her about the sounds of Hermione's screams echoing through the mansion. He remembered fondly Dobby's help and then, his death.

Ginny growled slightly at the knowledge that they had escaped to Shell Cottage, a fact she had never been made aware of. He told her that they planned to steal the Cup from the Lestrange Vault using Polyjuice Potion to make Hermione look like Bellatrix. While they were successful in stealing the Cup, Harry told her that they lost the Sword, which meant finding another way to destroy Horcruxes.

Quickly, Harry told her about the events that lead them to return to Hogwarts, his knowledge of the Horcruxes locations due an image from Voldemort's mind that had been projected in his own. Most of the rest of that day, she had been present for. It was the death of Snape that surprised her the most, especially the reveal that he had been working for Dumbledore all the while, his love for Lily Evans inspiring him even years after her death.

But it was the end of the tale of the Half-Blood Prince that caused Ginny to come to the real understanding of why Harry wished to have parts of his story kept private.

"You were a Horcrux?" she asked when Harry revealed the contents of Snape's conversations with Dumbledore.

"Accidentally, yes." Harry said. " _Neither can live while the other survives._ The Prophecy had been right all along. The Horcrux in me needed to die before Voldemort could. So, I went from the Headmaster's Office under my Invisibility Cloak to the Forest. I used the Resurrection Stone that was hidden inside the Snitch. With my parents, Sirius and Lupin, I walked to my death."

Ginny leaned forward, placing her hands on either side of Harry's face, tears in her eyes.

"How?"

"What do you mean?"

"How could you do that?"

"There was no other way." Harry said plainly. "I had to choose, Gin. It was either me or everyone that I loved. When you look at it that way, the choice was easy."

"But how are you here?"

"Because Voldemort made a mistake." Harry said. "The blood that he took from me, it saved me. It carried the protection from my mother. While Voldemort lived, while my blood ran through his veins, he couldn't kill me."

Harry told her how he was transported to a limbo-state, an imaginary King's Cross where he was able to commune with Dumbledore's spirit before returning.

"The rest is history." Harry said, his story finally complete.

"Merlin." Ginny whispered before looking up at Harry. "You should be dead."

"Several times over." Harry chuckled, which caused Ginny to hit him.

"It's not funny!" she said through her tears. "You thought you were going to die! You were going to give up everything!"

"I know." Harry said as he wrapped his arms around her. "Before I left the castle, I saw you. I wanted so desperately to stop and just be with you. But I knew that what I was doing was making it possible for someone to finish the task that I couldn't complete. Thankfully, as fate would have it, I was able to finish that task myself."

Ginny moved from her chair and jumped onto Harry's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing him as if she was trying to hold him in place. Of course, considering the story that Harry had just told her, he couldn't have been surprised by that reaction.

"Do you understand now? Do you understand why there are parts of this story that can't get out?" Harry asked, whispering into her ear. "The public can't know about the Horcruxes. They are a branch of magic that should be destroyed, forgotten for the rest of time. And I don't want anyone to know about the Forest. The Death Eaters know but thankfully, most of them are unavailable to talk to the Press."

Ginny giggled in his ear, refusing to let him go.

"I understand now." Ginny said, still holding onto him. "I could never have imagined anything like that."

"I know. That's why it's easier to keep it a secret. We've concocted a simpler story, one that gives people a version of the truth but one that doesn't cause them to lie awake at night."

Ginny pulled away from Harry, still seated on his lap, looking him straight in the eye.

"But didn't you hate the fact that Dumbledore kept secrets from you? What's the difference?"

Harry had considered that questions too many times to count over the last few months. There was no question that Harry keeping the truth of Voldemort's temporary immortality certainly had its similarities to the secrets that Dumbledore had kept from him over the years.

But, he also understood Dumbledore far more now than he ever did as a fifteen year old. While he still wished that Dumbledore would have been more open with him, he could at least see why Dumbledore had done what he had done, even if he thought the man was wrong.

"The main difference is that the information that Dumbledore was keeping from me was vitally important to me and my future." Harry said. "The fact that I didn't know about the prophecy meant that I couldn't understand why Voldemort had come after my parents, I couldn't understand why he still hounded me, and why he would continue to do so until one of us died. The information about Riddle is important, yes, but it is not vitally essential to anyone's daily life or their survival. If I thought it was, I would be the first person to tell them."

"I know you would." Ginny replied. "I just wanted to know that you had thought about it."

"Thanks for keeping me on my toes."

Harry and Ginny spent another hour or so by the fire, enjoying the warmth on a relatively mild February day. But as time eventually slipped by, they knew that they had to return to the castle, which they did after bidding Arthur, Molly and Ron farewell. They arrived back at Hogwarts in a flash, standing back inside the Headmistress's Office and finding Minerva seated at her desk.

"Welcome back." Minerva said as she looked up from her work. "Potter, Miss Granger: may I have a word with you?"

"Sure." Harry said before turning back to Ginny. "I'll see you later."

"Of course." Ginny smiled before turning and walking away, leaving Harry and Hermione alone with Minerva, who was giving Harry a very peculiar look.

"Something to share, Mr. Potter?" Minerva asked, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Well, uh, Ginny and I are back together again, ma'am." Harry said nervously.

Minerva smiled brightly. "Good. I always thought the two of you would make a good match."

"Well, thank you, ma'am." Harry said. "You wanted to speak with us?"

"I did." Minerva confirmed. "I am at my wit's end attempting to unravel the mystery of our school. As I said in our meeting, I have been consulting with some of the greatest minds in the world and no one seems to have an answer that adequately answers our question."

"Did that change?"

"Not exactly." Minerva said. "However, two pieces of information that I had not previously considered struck me while I was working this weekend. The first was from an expert on enchanted buildings from Japan. She had done extensive study on a number of places, including Hogwarts, over the years. In her report to me, she said that she believed there a location within the castle that housed the origin of all of the wards and charms that kept the castle upright and in prime condition despite the number of years that the castle has been standing."

"That would make sense." Hermione said. "That way, rather than having to charm each wall individually, they could charm this specific location so that it would spread its effects to the rest of the castle."

"Exactly." Minerva confirmed. "Our expert called this location The Keystone. If we could find it, we could potentially repair the magical damage that has been done to the school."

"You said if." Harry replied.

"There has been no mention, reference or remark made on any of the dozens of texts written about the castle and none of the experts I have spoken to have mentioned anything like that."

Harry's heart sank. To hear that someone had found something that could have fixed the castle had lifted his spirits only to immediately plummet again when he was told that it was a complete unknown, something that no one had ever found or mentioned.

"We found the Chamber of Secrets." Hermione said. "Well, technically Harry and Ron found it but I helped."

"You did more than help." Harry said. "She's not wrong. They said that didn't exist and we found it."

"I know you did." Minerva said proudly. "But the Chamber of Secrets had been a widely discussed legend for years. No one has ever heard of this Keystone, making it all the more unlikely that it even exists."

"So why bother telling us about it?" Harry asked harshly.

"Because I believe there may be one last source that I have no checked: Bathilda Bagshot."

Harry's mind stalled for a moment at the mention of the famed magical historian. Bathilda Bagshot was dead. Harry knew this because he had watched a snake come out of her corpse last Christmas in Godric's Hollow, an image that would never leave his mind as long as he lived.

Hermione said as much.

"It's true that Bathilda is no longer living." Minerva said. "However, before she died, she was working on one final project: a long awaited sequel to _Hogwarts, A History."_

"What?" Hermione asked suddenly, her voice trembling which caused both Harry and Minerva to chuckle at her.

"Yes, Hermione, Bathilda had spent almost the entirety of the last ten years doing more research on the castle, seeking to explore some of its deeper mysteries. It is widely believed that she somehow managed to acquire several manuscripts which she attributed to the Founders themselves. If that is the case, then the last chance we have may be in Bathilda's notes, which remain in her residence in Godric's Hollow. Thankfully, Bathilda willed all of her worldly possessions to Hogwarts."

"Meaning that we can have access to them." Hermione said, unable to hide the excitement in her voice.

"Yes. But, with the state of the castle the way it is, I will not be moving the texts here." Minerva said. "This means that if you would like to access them, you will have to go to Godric's Hollow."

"You're just going to leave them there?" Harry asked. "If these notes are as important as you say they are, why are they staying there?"

"Because Godric's Hollow, as an almost entirely magical dwelling, is one of the safest places in the country." Minerva said. "In addition, it seems that the texts do not want to leave the house. They must have been charmed to stay there. By the time we figure out how to counter that charm, we could have already discovered the secrets of the Keystone."

Minerva leaned over her desk, a sudden sense of urgency filling the room.

"You both will be given access to the house. I have already arranged for the Professors in your classes to eliminate most of your extra coursework so that you can focus on this. You are both more than prepared for your NEWT levels and could likely take them today if necessary. So, take care not to fall behind in your studies but make no mistake: this is your primary focus for the remainder of the semester."

"Understood." Hermione said.

"Of course." Harry replied. "We won't let you down."

Minerva smirked at that. "I expect nothing less from the two of you."


	32. Thirty-Two

Despite Harry's wish to spend every waking moment with Ginny now that the two of them had finally overcome their fear and actually acted on their feelings for each other, the life of The Man Who Lived stopped for no one and no reason. That meant that, instead, Harry spent almost every free moment that he had in Godric's Hollow, pouring over old notes on Hogwarts Castle, written in the tiniest text by Bathilda Bagshot.

It was anything but glorious work, but Harry knew that if he wanted to restore the castle, then the answer was likely in the stacks of notes they had been provided.

And there were stacks of notes. When Harry and Hermione had been in Bathilda's home before, it had been a bit of a mess, mostly owing to the fact that Bathilda was dead, her body taken over by Voldemort's pet serpent. Clearly, someone had done some organizing as the house itself was largely empty of furniture and any personal items.

In fact, among the only things that remained were boxes and boxes and stacks and binders and notebooks full of Bathilda's miniscule scrawl covering every inch of the pages in them. As they began looking through the notes, Harry found (to Hermione's chagrin) that there was no particular organization to these notes, no scheme that he could find that arranged them in any given order.

This meant that Harry and Hermione had already spent nearly a week going through the notes, page by page, word by word, searching for the answers they were looking for. While Harry had learned quite a bit in that week, he had found nothing that would help them fix the castle. Even Hermione, who had read nearly twice as much material as Harry, had found nothing, much to her constant annoyance.

In the week since Minerva had given them access to these notes, their schedule had been largely the same: Go to Class all day, go to dinner and then head to the Headmistress's Office to Floo to Bathilda's home where they would stay until well after midnight, reading hundreds of pages each night. It was a long and laborious project and one that Harry knew that he was not the ideal candidate for.

But he also understood that there was no one else to choose. The staff were already burdened enough by the extra patrols they had been given to ensure the safety of the students. They were also hitting the prime part of their year. Just as their students were getting more work, so was the staff.

Harry also knew that Minerva couldn't trust any other students to do this task. Harry and Hermione had clearly been given special responsibilities, which Harry assumed that Minerva had to have approved by the governors of the school. Then, there was the fact that Minerva trusted Harry and Hermione as much as she trusted some of her teachers, a fact that clearly swung this kind of task in favor of being granted to them.

They had been given a pass on all homework assignments until they discovered the answers or went through all of the notes, whichever came first. But after a week, Harry believed that they had only covered about five percent of the notes in Bathilda's office, which meant that it was unlikely they would finish anytime soon. Their only hope to return to a normal school life (and also save the school) was to find the answers as quickly as they could.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only item on their agenda. Once Ron had agreed to the Prophet's interview request, the wheels had immediately been set in motion. Harry's original plan had been to do a series of interviews, one with each of them before completing the series with a interview with all three of them. The Daily Prophet, however, was not interested in that, favoring one interview with the three of them that they could they break down into several different features. When that idea had been presented to Harry by Minerva, he agreed on one condition: they got complete and final approval over anything that was published. It had been Hermione's idea and Harry had loved it. This way, the Prophet could recut the interview into anything they wanted but if any one of the three of them didn't like the way the article was presented, it wouldn't be printed.

Needless to say, The Prophet wasn't terribly excited about that but they knew what kind of features they wanted out of this interview and so, albeit reluctantly, they agreed. Ron was given the second Saturday in February off at Kingsley's insistence to complete the interview, which would take place in the Headmistress's Office under the careful supervision of Minerva and Kingsley.

The night before the interview was to take place, the five of them gathered in Minerva's office to discuss what they would not be allowed to tell the paper. Kingsley had instructed that nothing about the Horcruxes could be mentioned, something everyone in the room agreed with. Harry's mind wandered back to his conversation with Ginny at the Burrow. He wondered if this was how Dumbledore felt when he had been forced to keep secrets: conflicted and yet certain that he was doing the right.

Minerva had also asked that anything regarding the school's dwindling population and waning structural integrity be left out. While Harry suspected that they would likely be asked about those things, he assured her that they wouldn't give any sort of answer. Finally, Harry told Kingsley and Minerva about the forest, a secret that now only six people knew. His reasoning behind telling them had been simple: he wanted them to understand why he was clearly lying about what happened in the Forest. The story that Harry and Hermione had concocted before their testimony in front of the Wizengamot, while we crafted, was not foolproof and rested just on the edge of believability. If anyone dared push too hard, someone would discover the truth. He was now trusting Minerva and Kingsley to help carry that secret and keep others from discovering the nature of Harry's resurrection in the Forbidden Forest.

While the subject of Hermione's torture at the hands of Bellatrix and Ron's temporary betrayal were never mentioned, Harry knew that there was a tacit agreement between them to avoid bringing up either of these subjects as well.

The next morning, the Trio arrived at the Headmistress's Office and found that the interviewer was already waiting. He was a tall man with square glasses and a wispy tuft of hair that he was clearly trying to make cover most of his bald head, an attempt in vain if Harry had ever seen one. He had a large nose and a small mouth, which made it look as if he may fall over if he leaned too far forward. His attire, a boring white dress shirt with black tie and cloak over top, made him look as if he were an old man, trying his hardest to look younger by putting some stylish frames around his eyes. Still, he smiled warmly at the three of them as they entered, immediately attempting to put them at ease.

It was just too bad for the man that almost nothing about the Daily Prophet could put Harry at ease. While the publication had been much nicer to Harry after Voldemort's reveal at the Department of Mysteries, and even kinder still after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry couldn't help but be reminded of a time in which they slandered his name and those that sided with him through the mud, claiming madness and subterfuge on the part of Harry and Albus Dumbledore.

"Good morning, my name is Julian McGregor." he said, his Irish accent prominent. "Thank you all for doing this."

Each of them thanked Julian before taking a seat in the three chairs across from the man. Next to each chair was a pitcher of water with a large glass.

Clearly, they were expected to be talking a lot.

"Now, I wanted to let you know that I will be talking to the three of you about the entirety of your lives. This includes your time before Hogwarts as well as what you've been doing since then. Does that sound quite alright with the three of you?"

"It does." Harry confirmed, unsmiling. Julian's expression faltered slightly when he saw Harry's cool reaction. However, he took it in stride and pulled out a long scroll of parchment and a quill. Much like Rita Skeeter's Quik Quotes Quill, this quill wrote on its own.

Unlike Rita's version, however, this quill only wrote exactly what was said aloud.

"Now, Mr. Potter, we all know your story but what most of us don't know is what your life was like before Hogwarts. It has long been rumored that you spent your youth and summers with your Muggle aunt and uncle. Can you tell me what that was like?"

Harry grimaced. He knew that this was going to be one of the first questions that was asked. It only made sense. Everyone wanted to know Harry's story and that included the decade before he resurfaced at Hogwarts. Harry gritted his teeth and pushed on.

"It was…" Harry paused, searching for the right words, "a learning experience."

"Why do you say that?"

"My aunt and uncle knew about magic, of course." Harry said, doing his best to pick his words carefully. He knew the wizarding world wouldn't care about what Harry said about Muggles unless it got too aggressive. "But they feared it greatly. They believed that magic was...abnormal and in their home, anything that was abnormal was something to be feared and eliminated."

"It sounds like it was hard."

"It was." Harry admitted. "They didn't treat me like family. They didn't give me a loving home. They treated me like a prisoner and in some ways, I was. I didn't know about the wizarding world so for the first eleven years of my life, I believed that I was trapped in that life forever."

"You didn't know about magic? How did you find out?"

Harry quickly recounted the story of the mysterious letters, intentionally highlighting some of Hagrid's more ingenious methods of delivery and Vernon's outrageous methods of blocking their entry, before talking about Hagrid arriving at the Hut on the Lake, where Hagrid explained to him who he really was.

"What did you feel in that moment?"

In the years since that day and the thousands of questions that Harry had ever been asked, he realized that he had never been asked that particular question. How would anyone feel if they had been told that they were not just a wizard but the most famous wizard of your generation, famous for something you couldn't remember, something that killed your parents?

"It was a lot." Harry admitted. "I remember being so excited to learn about magic, so excited to leave my family. But then it was revealed to me that I was part of something far more sinister than just plain magic. It made me realize, without quite knowing it, that magic, despite its wonderful applications, could also bring death and destruction into the world and I don't quite think that was something that ever really left me."

Julian spent the next several minutes talking to Ron and Hermione about their childhoods. While Ron's was a relatively familiar tale, Julian seemed interested in revealing the more mundane parts of the Muggle childhood experience. Hermione shared a particularly interesting anecdote about being late to school because her father's car had died, an experience that no self-respecting witch or wizard would ever experience. If they couldn't Apparate, they could use the Floo. If not the Floo, then a Portkey. There were many safe and almost instant ways to travel in the magical world, making the very idea of being late to something seem quite outlandish indeed.

Over the next hour, Julian asked dozens of questions about their time at Hogwarts, effectively detailing their adventures from the first year through their sixth. Throughout it all, the Trio made sure to show the best side of Hogwarts. They talked about the comradery they felt with their fellow students, the wonderful sensation of finally mastering a new spell, and the pride they felt cheering on (or playing for) their House Quidditch team. Whenever Julian attempted to bring up anything negative about the school, one of them, usually Hermione, was quick to deflect and somehow turn it into a positive. However, even Harry had to admit that this particular task got much harder as they went on.

It was when they reached the end of their sixth year that Julian stopped his line of questioning for a moment, looking at Harry curiously.

"Harry, there were rumors, still are rumors, in fact, that you were working very closely with Albus Dumbledore before he died."

"Yes, there were."

"Were there any truth to those rumors?"

Harry breathed deeply, knowing that this answer was going to lead them down the rabbit hole.

"Yes."

"What exactly were the two of you doing?"

"Professor Dumbledore was teaching me how to defeat Lord Voldemort."

"But why you?" Julian asked, an incessant tone in his voice. "You were a sixteen year old boy. Dumbledore himself had never defeated Voldemort in one-on-one combat. Why would he bother training someone who had so much less training than he did?"

Harry paused, considering how exactly he wanted to answer this question. Eventually, he settled on the most complete answer, starting from the very beginning.

"In the days before my birthday, Albus Dumbledore interview Sybil Trelawney at the Hog's Head for the Divination position. During that interview, she made a prophecy."

"A legitimate prophecy?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed.

"Is this prophecy why you were in the Department of Mysteries your fifth year?"

"Yes." Harry said. "Voldemort had tricked me into believing my godfather Sirius Black was being held hostage in the Hall of Prophecies. In reality, he wanted me there so that I could retrieve the prophecy and have his Death Eaters take it from me."

"What did the prophecy say?" Julian asked.

"It said that Voldemort and I were bound to one another." Harry said, omitting much of the important details of the prophecy. "In the end, neither of us could live with the other survived."

"You mean to tell me that this prophecy, made to Dumbledore himself, foretold your defeat of Lord Voldemort."

"No," Harry said firmly, "it foretold that we would battle and that one of us survived."

"But you were the one who survived."

"I was." Harry said. "This is why Dumbledore was training me. He knew that Voldemort would never stop coming after me and that I needed to be prepared to face him."

"What did you learn?"

Harry knew that would be the follow-up. He also knew what his answer would be.

"I'm not going to tell you that."

"Excuse me?" Julian asked.

"I won't be disclosing any specifics about how we defeated Lord Voldemort." Harry said. "Neither will Hermione and Ron."

"Why not?"

"First, we've been ordered by the Ministry of Magic not to reveal those particulars." Harry replied. "Second, revealing those specifics of how we defeated him would also reveal the lengths that Voldemort went to ensure that he survived his attack on my family, something that could theoretically be replicated if we went into any further detail."

Julian didn't look particularly happy with that response, Harry noted. However, he also understood that they were only having this conversation at the grace of Harry and the Ministry. If Julian pushed too hard, he knew that Harry would shut the interview down and he would get nothing.

"Fine." said Julian, smiling awkwardly. "What was your relationship like with Albus Dumbledore?"

"My relationship with Dumbledore was complicated." Harry said after a momentary pause. "He kept a lot from me over the years. He kept secrets. He lied. But, in the end, he was motivated by only one thing: the defeat of Lord Voldemort. He did everything in his power to keep me safe and to prepare me for the end, when it came. Without him, I wouldn't have lasted half as long as I did."

"It sounds like the two of you were close."

"At the end." Harry said cryptically.

Julian spent another hour asking about the Horcrux hunt, although he rarely got the information he wanted. Afterwards, he spent about thirty minutes asking Harry and Hermione about their seventh year at Hogwarts (each of them again spending most of the time declaring their undying love and support for Hogwarts) then spent another forty minutes talking about Ron's historic performance at the Auror Academy.

But it was the answer to the last question he asked Ron that surprised Harry.

"You were reportedly a rather middling student at Hogwarts. What made you turn things around so fast?"

Normally, Ron's ears would have turned red at such a question. Instead, he stared fiercely at Julian before answering.

"I wanted to make my friends and family proud." Ron admitted, looking sheepishly towards Harry and Hermione. "Look at these two. They're probably both going to be Minister of Magic someday. Harry was never going to be judged by his grades. I mean, c'mon, he's Harry Potter. Then, there's Hermione Granger, the finest student Hogwarts has seen in a generation. Then, there was me."

In the past, Harry would have expected that last sentence to come out as an accusation, as if Harry was part of the reason that he was considered to be less than. But now, it seemed almost like a statement of fact.

"When I looked back on my time at Hogwarts, I knew that I hadn't done much to inspire much confidence in my abilities. It's likely only due to the fact that I was a member of Dumbledore's Army that got me into the Auror Academy in the first place. When I decided that I was going to be an Auror, I also decided that I was going to stop blaming others for my own failures, the problems that I had created. I dedicated myself to becoming a world class Auror. Thankfully, I had grown up with two of the best teachers around."

Ron turned and smiled at Harry and Hermione.

"I owe it all to the two of them and my family." Ron said. "Without them, I would be nowhere."

Julian clearly saw that as a good time to stop. He promised that he would likely need to ask each of them some follow-up questions, which could be done at a later date. Within just a few moments, he had packed up his things and was gone, leaving the trio alone with Kingsley and Minerva.

"I think that went well." Kingsley said. "Thank you all for doing that."

"What is he planning on writing the first piece about?" Harry asked.

"We have asked that the first piece be about Hogwarts." Kingsley replied. "We know that we need to drum up support for the school."

"Good. I think we gave him a lot of material to work with." Hermione said.

"I would say so." Minerva said, stepping in front of the three of them. "I cannot tell you how proud I am of all three of you. If these articles work, you may have very well saved the castle once more."

"We're going to do what we can." Ron said firmly.

All three of them stood. But before they could get to the door, Kingsley spoke up.

"Harry, could I speak with you a moment?"

"Sure." Harry said before turning back to the other two. "I'll see you later."

Both Ron and Hermione smiled at Harry and then walked out the door, leaving Harry with the Minister of Magic.

"Harry, I would like you to come to the Ministry tomorrow." Kingsley said. "If you are able, I would like you to work with the Aurors. Talk to those in charge of the investigation and give your input on how the Death Eaters may be acting."

"I can do that." Harry said. "But you know that I may know just as little as your Aurors."

"Any extra information you can provide will help." Kingsley smiled. "I'll send you an owl with the time they are meeting."

Harry, exhausted from the stress of the interview, grabbed a quick dinner in the Great Hall, said goodnight to Ginny and then returned to his dorm where he almost instantly collapsed on his bed. When he awoke early the next morning, he found a note with the time that the Aurors were meeting at the Ministry. Thankfully, it was still a couple of hours away, which allowed him to get a shower before going down to the Great Hall to get some breakfast.

Ginny, surprisingly, was already down in the Great Hall when he arrived.

"Mornin'." Harry said, giving Ginny a quick kiss on the cheek as he sat down and started piling bacon onto his plate.

"Good morning." Ginny replied, a big smile on her face. "What's the plan for the day?"

"Well, I'm going to be at the Ministry for at least part of the morning." Harry replied. "I'm going to be consulting with the Aurors, giving them as much intel as I can on the Death Eaters."

"You can really know that much that they don't already know?" Ginny asked.

"I told Kingsley the same thing but he strongly implied that I should talk to them. With the amount of work I have for classes and then the extra research I'm doing for Professor McGonagall, this seemed to be a good time to meet."

"I suppose that makes sense." Ginny replied. "Will I see you tonight?"

She rubbed her shoulder against his before raising her eyebrows suggestively.

"I certainly hope so." Harry said.

After Harry finished scarfing down the rest of his breakfast, he raced back to his dorm to change into more appropriate attire for the Ministry of Magic. Once he was ready to go, he went to Minerva's Office and used her fireplace to Floo to the Ministry Atrium. The moment Harry arrived, he noticed a single man standing in the middle of the Atrium, clad in the Auror's signature red robes, who was clearly waiting for him.

"Mr. Potter, please follow me." he said before turning and marching down the hall. Harry followed the Auror to the lift which they took up to Level One, which surprised Harry because he expected them to be going to the Auror Department, which was on Level Two. Instead, the moment the lift stopped, the Auror stepped off the lift and walked straight towards Kingsley's Office.

The Auror pulled open the door and then stepped inside, allowing Harry to walk past him. Harry saw that Kingsley had not been entirely accurate when he said that he would be conferring with the Aurors. While there were certainly Aurors present, they weren't the only people in the room. To his left sat Meredith Breckinridge, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with John Dawlish, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot next to her. On his right was Tiberius Ogden and Percy Weasley, the Senior Undersecretary and Junior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, respectively.

Two Aurors sat next to them and although Harry did not know their names, their age and the medals that they wore on their robes suggested that they were not entry level Aurors.

"Good morning, Harry." Kingsley said as he indicated to a chair next to Meredith. "Have a seat."

Harry, mildly nervous suddenly, nodded and took the place that he had indicated, smiling at Meredith as he sat but refusing to bare his teeth. Then, the door opened once more and Cho Chang entered the room.

Immediately, Harry stared at her. While they had done their best to remain in contact after they had dissolved their relationship, they had not been that successful. Since they had broken up, only a handful of letters had been exchanged between the pair of them and they had dinner at Grimmauld Place once. It had been a moderately awkward experience and neither of them had seemed particularly keen on repeating it so soon afterwards.

It had been the last time that either of them had communicated with the other. Cho entered the room, completely unaware of Harry's presence and took a seat opposite as Kingsley spoke up.

"Thank you for coming, Ms. Chang." Kingsley said warmly before looking at everyone else. "For those of you who do not know, Ms. Chang has been promoted to Deputy Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and is here today in Arthur's absence as he is required elsewhere. Ms. Chang, I believe that you are the youngest person to ever assume that post?"

"That would be correct, sir, and please call me Cho." she said as her eyes suddenly swiveled around the room and met Harry's, who smiled weakly at her.

"Well, we're all excited to see what you do." Kingsley said. "Now, today's meeting has one goal: to update us all of the threat that we face in the Death Eaters. To that end, I have invited Harry here today to give us the information that he knows about the Death Eaters. By the end of the war, there was no one with more information on the inner workings of the Death Eaters than Harry. So, we will first start with an update from Meredith on the state of the investigation and then Harry, I will ask you to illuminate us with as much as you know."

"Right." Harry said nervously.

However, before that could happen, an Auror burst into the room with a strange object in his hand: a flower vase. But if that was strange, than Kingsley's reaction to its presence was even stranger still. The Minister of Magic stood, his eyes firm as he gazed upon the vase.

"When?"

"A few minutes ago." the Auror said cryptically. "Trafalgar Square."

"Very well." Kingsley said before turning to everyone else. "There has been an attack on the city by the Death Eaters. Protocol states that everyone in this room must go with me to a safe location."

"Where are we going?" Cho asked.

"Even I don't know, Miss Chang." Kingsley said before putting the vase out in front of him. "It's a Portkey. Hands on, everyone."

Without a moment's hesitation, everyone immediately reached out for the vase. Once everyone had connected, Kingsley tapped his wand on the vase, which reacted instantaneously, dragging them from the Minister's Office. When they landed (all of them arriving on their feet), Harry could instantly tell that they were no longer in London. A quick look out the window showed a mountain range in the distance, something that no window in London would show.

"It appears that we are somewhere in the south of France." Kingsley said as a battalion of Aurors arrived to secure the building they were. Harry noticed that the building itself was a small house of only four rooms, a quaint kitchen and living room with a bathroom and bedroom upstairs. Even when it had just been the six of them, the house would have been cramped.

But now that almost a dozen Aurors had entered the home, there was immediately nowhere within the house that wasn't extremely crowded. Thankfully, the Aurors only stayed long enough to secure the house and ensure that all of the windows were closed and the doors locked, all of them apparently warded to prevent them from being magically opened. From there, most of the Aurors returned to London with only a few remaining outside. That way, they could defend the Minister without drawing too much attention to them.

With nothing else to do, the meeting continued in the cramped living room. Meredith spent roughly twenty minutes discussing the intel they had on the Death Eaters. According to their sources, the Death Eaters had returned to Malfoy Manor, which couldn't be found by the Ministry due to the charms and wards placed on it. However, they did have a rough location for the Manor, provided to them by Solomon Greengrass, Daphne's father. Once they had that information, they had been able to search for wards in the area.

Eventually, they were able to sketch out an area of warded land, clearly designed to keep people out, magical and Muggle alike. In fact, upon further research into these wards, it was highly suspected that only those with a Dark Mark could access the wards, although that was still speculation at the moment.

Personally, Harry wouldn't have put it past them. He knew that the Malfoys had hosted parties for Purebloods over the years but that didn't mean that they couldn't have adjusted the wards for those events before returning to their normal, restrictive state.

While they believed they had located Malfoy Manor, they couldn't yet tell what they were doing there. However, an influx of strangers that even the Muggles had noticed over the last few months in the local town suggested that they had been recruiting, something they had suspected for months. If that was the case, then it was clear: Antonin Dolohov was raising an army and in Britain, there were only two locations where you truly needed an army.

Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.

Apparently, in the last few weeks, there had been rumors that the Death Eaters were looking to make a big splash by attacking Muggles. However, none of their sources had been able to identify specific locations and all attempts to infiltrate the Death Eater had thus far ended in failure.

Harry now understood why Kingsley wanted Harry's help. They had absolutely nothing to go. Unlike Voldemort, who frightened his followers to the point that they may consider betraying them, Dolohov did not seem to inspire the same fear, and as a result, the same risk of betrayal by his followers. Even if Harry would only be able to give them bits and pieces of information, it would be better than nothing.

So, Harry laid out what he knew about the Death Eaters that remained free. He started with the one that he knew the most about: Lucius Malfoy. While most of the people in the room were familiar with Lucius, Harry was able to inform them on a slightly different perspective, telling them about his impressions of Lucius during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Normally, Lucius presented an arrogant public face but on that day, it was clear that Lucius was beaten down and afraid of failing his master.

Also, Lucius had been the one selected by Voldemort to lead the Death Eaters into the Department of Mysteries, which had been an abject failure for them. From that moment forward, Lucius was looked at as nothing more than a laughing stock among the Death Eaters. It was likely this failure that had allowed Dolohov to present himself as a more qualified alternative to lead the Death Eaters. Dolohov had killed Remus Lupin and had nearly killed Hermione at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, two significant strikes to the Order of the Phoenix. During the same time, Lucius had fallen out of favor with the Dark Lord and had made no attempt to do anything other than find his son during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Which begged the question: what did the Death Eaters want with Lucius in particular? The likely answer, Harry suggested, was that they needed him to access Malfoy Manor, which was by far the most warded individual residence in the country (outside of Grimmauld Place). It was either that or the Death Eaters wished to enact their own form of vengeance on a man whom they viewed as a traitor.

As for Dolohov himself, Harry had only met him the one time in Hogsmeade. However, he relayed the details of his personality that Minerva had told him. Harry also suggested that Dolohov may have been the most powerful Death Eater outside of Bellatrix and Riddle himself. The spell that he hit Hermione with in the Department of Mysteries had apparently been one of his own creation and while Harry was still not exactly certain what it was, he could tell that it was immensely powerful, considering that even without saying the incantation, it had nearly killed Hermione.

As for the rest of the Inner Circle, Harry unfortunately knew very little. He had only interacted with Selwyn at the Lovegood home when he came to collected the Trio. Harry's impression of him was that he was a twisted man, capable of inflicting pain and death on anyone for any reason.

It had been Avery's idea to use Broderick Bode to get the Prophecy out of the Ministry of Magic, an idea for which he had been tortured when it was revealed that only the subjects of a prophecy could retrieve it. Needless to say, this did not leave Harry with a particularly high opinion of him.

In the same vein, Vincent Crabbe Sr. did not appear to be a particularly talented wizard. He was Stunned in the Department of Mysteries and had apparently been Stunned a second time by Collin Creevey before his death at the Battle of Hogwarts.

The last Inner Circle member that Harry knew of was Theodore Nott Sr. Unlike Crabbe and Goyle, it had been widely rumored that Nott Sr (and his son, who was also rumored to be working with the reformed Death Eaters) was a brilliant wizard, specifically in the field of Potions. Ron had mentioned a few times that Nott Sr. had been rumored to be the Potions Master to the Dark Lord, supplying him with Potions to torture and poison those who dared to oppose him. Harry warned that if Nott was working with Dolohov, then Dolohov no doubt utilized Nott's skills against the Ministry.

With that information, as little as it was, the Aurors and Kingsley thanked Harry for his input and then the meeting was officially over. Unfortunately, Ministry protocol stated that they had to remain in this safe location for another four hours, which Harry knew immediately would be a dreadfully long time.

Sure enough, less than an hour later, he was already pacing the living room, ready to get out of this strange cell in the south of France. After another hour of pacing, Harry suddenly felt a hand on his arm, dragging him towards the stairs. Harry turned to see Cho had a firm grip on his arm as she pushed him up the stairs. Deciding that he had nothing better to do than do what she wanted, Harry did as she asked and ascended the stairs, taking a seat on the queen bed that sat in the middle of the room.

Cho took a seat next to him, a nervous smile on her face.

"How are things at school?" she asked.

Harry was surprised that she seemed interested in talking to him at all. Maybe it was because they were both bored and trapped in this tiny house, Harry thought to himself, or maybe it was because she felt as if Harry was ignoring her.

He knew he had been. It wasn't intentional. There were a lot of people that Harry had ignored over the past few months, mostly due to the sheer volume of work that he had, not to mention the added responsibilities of being Harry Potter. Still, he knew that he should have been better about remaining in contact with his friends, Cho included.

"School is going well." Harry said. "I'm on pace to get my NEWTs and start teaching next year."

"I heard that you applied for a waiver that would allow you to start teaching next year." Cho said warmly. "Why do you need to start teaching so soon?"

"Because of Flitwick." Harry said, watching as Cho's mood dropped. She had been a Ravenclaw. Undoubtedly, Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House, had been one of her favorite professors.

"Right." Cho said, her voice devoid of all emotion.

"It's not why I wanted to start teaching earlier either." Harry assured her. "But I want to do well and I want to make Hogwarts proud."

"I'm sure you will." Cho said. "You know that during the Triwizard Tournament, Flitwick would take points from anyone who wore a Potter Stinks badge in his class."

"Really?" Harry asked.

Cho nodded. "He wanted everyone to support both Champions. Of course, he immediately believed you when you said that you didn't put your name in the Goblet of Fire."

"Probably because he knew his Charms and knew that I had no chance of breaking the enchantments on that thing."

"And because he trusted you." Cho added. "Anyway, I'm happy for you. It seems like everything is going well."

"Same with you. Deputy Department Head at twenty years old? How often as that happened?"

"Only about three times in the history of the Ministry." Cho said proudly. "I'll be a Deputy Head for the next decade but it certainly puts me in a good position to do some good things in the world."

"It's an impressive feat." Harry replied. "So, how goes your life outside of work?"

"Not as well as yours, I hear." Cho said with a subtle wink.

"What have you heard?"

"Rumors abound that a certain redheaded witch has once again claimed the heart of The Chosen One." Cho said as Harry mouthed dropped, which caused Cho to laugh. "I'm not mad, Harry. I know that you weren't using me to get back with her or anything like that."

"I'm glad that you aren't mad." Harry said.

"What's there to be mad about? I dated the Man Who Lived and he genuinely cared about me. We didn't work out but that kind of shit happens in life."

"We tried, right?" Harry said.

"We did." Cho said. "I just wanted to make sure that we're still friends. I haven't heard from you in awhile."

"I know." Harry said, feeling just a hint of shame. "I...our last dinner was-"

"Strange?"

"Yeah." Harry admitted. "It just didn't seem like it was going to work."

"I know what you mean. But I don't want to give up on being friends with you, Harry." Cho said strongly. "Now, the bigger question is how will Ginny feel about this?"

"She'll be fine." Harry assured her.

"You're sure?"

"I'm certain for two reason." Harry said. "First, she knows that I'm crazy about her. Second, she knows that we tried to make a relationship work and it didn't. Plus, Ginny was never a particularly jealous person. Protective? Yes. A bit impatient? Definitely. But jealousy was never really her thing."

"That's good." Cho replied. "You seem really happy."

"I am." Harry answered. "It's taken a long time to get here but I am."

"Then I'm happy for you."

With Cho by his side, the next two hours only seemed like a moderate slog through time. Unable to perform magic, they searched the house and eventually found a deck of playing cards, which they used to try and build card castles without magic, something Harry had never done and found out that he was quite terrible at doing so.

Eventually, the time came for them to leave. But just before they did, an Auror Apparated into the house and handed Kingsley a parchment. The moment that he began reading, Harry could tell that something was wrong. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and raspy and there were tears in his eyes.

"The Death Eaters attacked Trafalgar Square this morning. They did this by placing Muggle repelling charms on the side streets, forcing the Muggles to stay in the Square. From there, they took turns throwing Exploding Curses into the Square, eventually killing over four hundred Muggles and destroying Nelson's Column."

It was a massacre, Harry thought, his heart sinking deep into his chest as he felt Cho grab his hand tightly. But Kingsley wasn't done.

"In response to the first attack, a team of Aurors lead by Head Auror Gawain Robards entered the Square. While they were able to force the Death Eaters to flee, there were significant casualties. Fourteen Aurors…"

Kingsley's voice broke, choking over the next set of words.

"Fourteen Aurors...including Head Auror Robards, were killed by the Death Eaters."

The room was silent, expect for the suppressed sobs of several people in the room. Harry couldn't imagine such a brazen attack. While the attack on the Brockdale Bridge was horrific, it was nothing compared to this.

This was genocide, nothing less.

Harry looked up and noticed that Kingsley stood with the vase in his hands.

"We are free to return to the Ministry." Kingsley said, his voice lifeless. "If everyone would please place their hands on the vase."

Moments later, with the same horrifying feeling, everyone stood where in the Minister of Magic's office where they had stood hours earlier.

"Go see your loved ones." Kingsley said as he sat at his desk, looking older than Harry had ever seen him. "There will be a memorial service for the fallen Aurors. I'll have memos sent to your offices to update you should I learn anything more."

Everyone clearly took that as their order to leave. Harry stood at the back of the line of people waiting to file out of the room when he heard Kingsley speak up once more.

"Harry?"

Harry turned back to see Kingsley, tears now falling freely, a broken man sitting in the highest office in the land. Instantly, Harry let everyone finish filing out of the room and then closed the door before turning back to the Minister of Magic.

"Yes, Minister?" Harry said.

"Is this how this feels?" Kingsley said as he reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of Ogden's, pouring a glass for himself and a glass for Harry.

"How what feels, sir?"

"Harry, it's just me." Kingsley said as he leaned against his desk. Harry instantly knew what Kingsley was talking about.

"How what feels, Kingsley?" Harry said.

"Having the weight of the world on your shoulders." Kingsley said. "You've dealt with this for years, having the eyes of the world staring at you."

"I have." Harry said, sitting on one of the couches that lined the edge of the room. Kingsley stood from his desk and joined Harry on the couch, their glasses already empty.

"How do you deal with it?" Kingsley asked. "How did you deal with all of that death, knowing that you believed in your heart that it was your fault?"

"How do you know that I thought it was my fault?"

"Because I saw how you reacted to Sirius's death-"

"Which was my fault."

"It was not." Kingsley fired back. "You were fifteen years old and you believed your godfather was being tortured. You made mistakes but so did the adults in your life who were supposed to be protecting you. That's on them."

"I know." Harry said. "But that doesn't make it any better."

"That's great to hear." Kingsley chuckled darkly as he poured himself another glass. "You know, I was an Auror for years. I'm used to death and the destruction of the Death Eaters. But that was different. If someone died, I could always place the blame on Fudge or Scrimgeour or Robards even. I could say that they hadn't acted quick enough or gotten us the intel in time. But now-"

"Now you're Fudge or Scrimgeour or Robards." Harry said knowingly. "Now, the burden of responsibility falls to you. There's no one else to blame."

Kingsley nodded. "Robards was one of the best Aurors I ever knew. He was fucking brilliant but he cared so much about people. Scrimgeour was better suited to be Minister of Magic but there was no doubt that Gawain was a better Auror. Now, he's dead because we didn't move fast enough."

"No, he's dead because Dolohov decided that today would be a good day to attack a bunch of defenseless Muggles." Harry countered. "Don't ever forget that there's another side to his coin. If Dolohov and the Death Eaters don't exist, then there's no threat. In the end, the responsibility for the death belongs to whoever cast the spell."

"But I'm the Minister of Magic. It's my job to keep our people safe."

"But you aren't a god." Harry replied. "Are you doing the best you can do? Are you working dozens of hours a day with the Aurors trying to bring them in?"

"Of course."

"Then that's all we can do." Harry said. "There are dozens of deaths on my conscience, Kingsley. Dozens of people that might have lived if things had been different. But I know, deep down, that I did my best with the information I had. It's the nature of war, as I was told recently. People are going to die on both sides. The only thing we can do is ensure that we keep the casualties to a minimum."

Kingsley nodded gently before finishing the rest of his glass. "I can't tell you how impressed people are with you, Harry. Minerva has told me at least three times that she expects someone from the Ministry to poach you from Hogwarts within the next couple of years. You've grown into quite the exceptional person."

"Thanks, Kingsley."

"I'd like to ask you something." Kingsley said, his voice changing just slightly to a more _official_ tone. "I know that, in the past, you rejected the idea of speaking on behalf of the Ministry when Scrimgeour asked you. That being said, I would like you to come and speak at the memorial service later this week."

"What do you want me to say?" Harry asked cautiously.

"I want you to say what's in your heart. I hope that I have earned your faith and that you will be kind enough to relay that to the people but honestly, that doesn't matter right now. What matters is the truth and I think people will understand and accept that better coming from you."

If there was ever a moment in which Harry understood exactly why Kingsley had been the right choice for Minister of Magic, this was it. Kingsley had been right when he said that Harry had been against speaking for the Ministry but that was mostly because Scrimgeour had wanted Harry to lie. He had wanted Harry to tell everyone that everything was going to be alright.

But Kingsley had just said that he didn't care to lie and he honestly didn't care if Harry trashed the Ministry publicly. He just wanted Harry to be the voice of the truth to the people, something that Harry was always in favor of.

That made it easy to answer Kingsley's request.

"You have certainly earned my faith, Minister, and I would be glad to speak at the memorial."

The choice of words was intentional and Harry was glad to see that Kingsley had picked up on that. In the political climate of a world less than a year removed from the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry's support was the single greatest influence in the country, something that could be used to destroy alliances or build them up.

"Thank you, Harry. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this."

"Just keep on fighting and we'll get through this."


	33. Thirty-Three

The Atrium of the Ministry of Magic was typically a loud and busy place, with people coming and going and flames crackling loudly. Today, however, it was nearly silent. At the start of the ceremony, the fireplaces that lined the hall had been put out and none of the hundreds of people that were seated around the fountain seemed particularly talkative.

It was effectively a funeral after all.

Harry sat on a stage in the center of the Atrium next to Kingsley, while Meredith Breckinridge sat on Kingsley's other side. The scroll in Harry's hand held the words that he would say that day but that wasn't what made him nervous. It was the fact that every other time that Harry had been in public like this, Ron and Hermione had been with him.

But Hermione was still at school and Ron was present, albeit in his red Auror robes, but was nowhere to be seen among the sea of people at the moment. Now, he had no backup, no one to divert the attention away from him. All eyes would fall on him and what he would say.

He only hoped that his words would be good enough.

When the procession of the families of the deceased finally end with Gawain Robards' wife and four children seated in the front row, Kingsley stepped up to the podium and spoke.

"Thank you all for coming." he said morosely. "Today is a dark day for the Ministry of Magic, the Aurors, and their loved ones. Today, we mourn those that we have lost and honor their service to ensuring a better future for us all. Words can only do so much but today, words are all we have."

Kingsley gripped the podium. Harry could see that he was fighting to keep that same desperation that Harry had seen only two days earlier from bubbling to the surface.

"To that end, I have asked my friend, Harry, to say a few words to honor those we lost."

Kingsley stepped away from the podium and waved his hand toward it, indicating that it was Harry's turn to speak. Standing, Harry straightened out his robes and checked his tie before moving towards the podium. Looking out on the crowd, Harry recognized quite a few faces but found that he couldn't focus on them for too long.

Instead, he looked down and once again looked at Gawain's wife and children. She, much like her husband, looked shrewd and collected, even on this day. Even though Harry could see the tears in her eyes, she fought against them, refusing to let them control her. He followed her line of sight to the massive photograph that had been printed of Gawain. In fact, each of the deceased Auror had a photograph twice Harry's height posted around the room.

But unlike these most magical photographs, these photos were still, frozen in place. It was a chilling reminder that these people, who had sacrificed everything to keep them safe, would never move again.

"I first met Gawain Robards at a meeting with Minister of Magic Shacklebolt and Meredith Breckinridge, newly installed Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Harry said calmly. "I was not particularly respectful to Gawain in that meeting. However, he and I came out of that meeting with a much better understanding of each other. I could instantly tell that he was a man who believed in the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters as much as I did. I could also tell that he was a man who tolerated no nonsense and spoke his mind, something I greatly appreciated. I was looking forward to a time in which I would get a chance to know Gawain better and work with him again."

"Unfortunately, that time will now never come." Harry said, looking down at the Robards family. "Gawain leaves behind his wife, Chelsea, and his four children: Liam, Kara, Lynn and Seth. They will never see their husband or father again. But that doesn't mean that they won't feel his influence for the rest of their life. When they are faced with a choice, faced with the opportunity to fight for others, they will undoubtedly feel their father's influence and choose to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. When given the opportunity to give up and walk away, to take the easy path, they will refuse and push on. When they feel as if the world is against them and they cannot take anymore, they will remember their father, a man who dedicated his life to beating overwhelming odds."

Harry looked away from the Robards family and instead, cast his gaze over the top of the crowd, looking to the back of the room over the hundreds gathered there as he spoke.

"The men and women who took the lives of these Aurors will see a day in which they pay for the crimes they have committed, this I promise you." Harry said, his voice trembling in anger. "For the first time in years, we should have faith in our Ministry, faith in our leaders to take us through this dark time and into a brighter future. The Death Eaters are weak, bonded only by their mutual hatred of good people and those without magic. But we are stronger than they are because we believe in the goodness of people's hearts. We believe in the strength of unity over the strength of division. We believe that the power of love and friendship will overcome anything that they dare put in our way."

Harry suddenly found himself laughing, a short, strained laugh that caused some in the room to whisper, worried possibly that Harry might have lost his mind.

"In a way, I pity them." Harry said shortly. "When I was in my fifth year, I lead six teenagers to this very spot to save my godfather from Voldemort. I was mistaken that he was here. Voldemort had tricked me into seeing what he wanted me to see. As a result of my actions that day, I lost my godfather before he was given the chance to prove his innocence."

"I tell you that to tell you that, on that day, Tom Riddle tried to possess me, a skill in which he was quite talented. He tried to possess me and yet, despite his great power, he found that he couldn't. Why? Because a man as dark and as broken as he could not understand and could not stand the love that I felt in my heart for my godfather and everyone else that I love."

"When a Death Eater dies, do you think that they hold a ceremony like this? Do they honor them? Do they cherish their memory? Or do they simply cast their corpse aside and move on? Death Eaters do not feel love and compassion for their friends and certainly not for their enemies. In that way, I feel sorry for them. On that day, I told Riddle."

"I told him that he was the weak one. He was weak because he never knew love. He was weak because he never knew friendship and for that, I felt sorry for him. A life without love and friendship is a life not worth living as we so clearly can point out today. We are here because whether we knew one of the fallen or not, we feel a kinship with our fellow man that the Death Eaters, whether they are led by Voldemort or Dolohov or any other of their kind, simply do not understand."

"Feel sorry for them." Harry said, his voice ragged. "But do not stop fighting. Albus Dumbledore, my mentor, my friend, once said: _It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay though never quite eradicated._ On a different occasion, he said: _Don't pity the dead. Pity the living and, above all, pity those who live without love."_

"Albus Dumbledore was right, like he was right about so many things. We must feel sorry for those who do not know how to love but we must fight. We must feel sorry for those who lack friendship but still, we must fight. No matter what...we must fight."

Harry looked back at Kingsley, who wept openly for the death of so many of his friends, and Meredith.

"The Ministry is doing everything they can to bring these murderers, and that is what they are, to justice. Support them. Help them in any way you can. They deserve your faith. Remember, Gawain Robards and every Auror who died, they had faith in the Ministry of Magic. You honor them by sharing that same faith and you remember them by remembering how important it is to fight and fight again and keep on fighting."

The gathered assembly applauded politely as Harry took his seat next to Kingsley. For a moment, Harry sat and watched as the people continued to applaud before someone finally cheered, a giant whooping shout, which caused someone else to holler in response. Eventually, almost everyone in the room was standing and cheering, not for Harry's words, but for what they represented: resistance against those who seek to destroy everything that was good in the world.

Kingsley leaned over to Harry as the crowd started to stand.

"Thank you." he whispered into Harry's ear before standing and giving some farewell remarks to the crowd before the same string quartet that had played at the Yule Ball played a song that Harry felt like he should have recognized. While the music played, the crowd got in a line and walked by the coffins of the fallen, which had been lined up in front of the stage. This meant that Harry got a front row view for every distraught relative that passed through the line.

For nearly an hour, he sat and waited, feeling like his presence was necessary. While this was no longer technically a part of his crusade against Voldemort, he knew that most people probably viewed Harry as an integral part of the fight against the Death Eaters, even if he wasn't the one out there fighting. So, he waited and waited and waited some more until the end of the line finally came through.

At that point, Harry went through the line himself, reading the names of every single person who had died fighting the Death Eaters, reminding himself that this fight was not yet quite finished.

Soon, Harry thought to himself, soon.

Harry turned away from the deceased, looking to head back to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he was not the only person left. In fact, as Harry walked out of the Atrium and into the lobby of the guest exit, he immediately encountered nearly a dozen people, all of them with quills floating in the air. While Julian's quill had been kind, Harry was immediately suspicious of these as they started moving the second he walked into the room.

Almost the second the blood suckers saw Harry, a cacophony of voices echoed in the tiny room, nearly causing Harry to go deaf. Eventually, they realized that Harry wouldn't answer any of their questions if he couldn't hear them and so, using some sort of extra blood sucker senses, they all stopped talking at once.

One of them (who strongly reminded Harry of a young and incredibly immature Parvati Patil) stepped forward and asked her first question.

"Harry, you gave a wonderful speech today. However, your words ring hollow considering you've been hiding away at Hogwarts since September. What would you say to those who believe that you abandoned the rest of England to the rise of the Death Eaters?"

Almost immediately, Harry felt as if he couldn't hear again due to the pressure building in his ears. In fact, if Harry had been in his right mind, he would have been worried that there might have been smoke quite literally blowing out of his ears. However, Harry wasn't worried about much as he balled his hands into a tight fist, the blood pounding in his ears so loud that he could hear his heartbeat.

Thankfully, he did have the foresight to ask one question.

"Who do you work for?" Harry asked, growling through gritted teeth.

" _The Warlock Digest."_ she said firmly, the quill that was floating next to her head scribbling furiously. _The Warlock Digest_ was widely known as a headline-grabbing gossip rag that often wrote sensational stories designed to incite panic and chaos. In other words, they were the very worst of the free press in the wizarding world.

Immediately, Harry took out his wand and set the quill ablaze, causing it to turn to ash before it even hit the ground.

"Listen to me." Harry barked, his voice foreign even to himself. "What have you done to help the Death Eaters?"

Harry noticed that all of the reporters immediately seemed far more interested in what was on the floor rather than what Harry was saying. It was unfortunate for them then that Harry didn't give a shit about what they were interested in.

" _What have you done?"_ Harry repeated, this time his voice much louder. "Nothing. You sat back and watched Lord Voldemort take over and you did nothing. But now you think you are in a position to judge me for what I do with my life?"

"You are the most famous Dark wizard killer in the world and yet you aren't an Auror." one of the reporters said. "Why?"

"That's none of your business." Harry barked. "What I choose to do with my life is mine. When you've killed a dark wizard by your seventeenth birthday, then you can judge me. When you literally spend a year on the run from the most powerful dark wizard in our country's history, then you can judge me. Also, have any of you ever heard of the Wizengamot?"

"What's your point?" another one of the reporters asked rudely.

"My point? Who was responsible for Kingsley Shacklebolt's election in the Wizengamot? Who was the prime witness ensuring that the captured Death Eaters are going to jail? That was _**me.**_ Just because I'm not out there killing Death Eaters doesn't mean that I'm not doing anything, which is more than I can say for you pathetic people."

Harry stepped forward, placing his face only inches away from the woman who had asked the first question.

"What did you think you were going to get from this?" Harry said. "Did you think you were going to get a good story? Everyone knows that I've been at Hogwarts. Have you seen any other publication print an article wondering why I wasn't out there, other than the kind of garbage publications you work for?"

Harry laughed at the reporters darkly.

"Go ahead and write these articles. I _dare_ you." Harry taunted. "If you write these stories, you'll get so much hate mail within the next few days that you'll be forced to quit and your papers will be forced to close their doors."

"You think quite highly of yourself." the reporter replied.

"As you said, I did kill Lord Voldemort." Harry shot back before pushing through the crowd. "People died and you are more concerned with whether someone is going back to school than the group of people who actually killed them. You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

Harry, fuming and almost to the point of losing control, turned and left the group of shocked reporters as he walked out of the Ministry, instantly Apparating to Grimmauld Place where he Flooed back to Hogwarts. Once he was there, he ignored Minerva and walked straight to the Room of Requirement. He entered the room and saw hundreds of dummies ready for him, just as he had asked.

Harry stepped forward and leveled his wand at the first dummy.

" _Confringo!"_

Instantly, the first dummy exploded into a thousand tiny pieces. Even a Repairing Charm would stand no chance at putting these dummies back together once Harry was finished with them. After the first, he hit the second and then the third and so on until all three hundred and forty-four were in pieces, Harry was sweating profusely and the room smelled distinctly of gunpowder and burned rubber.

Having done that, Harry knew exactly what he needed to do. After grabbing a quick shower and a change of clothes, Harry returned to Minerva's office, handing her a letter and a list of names that he had drawn up.

"What are these?" Minerva asked.

"These are the names of Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix." Harry said. "Would it be possible for you to send this letter to everyone on the list?"

"That is an easy task. May I ask why?"

"Because today at the memorial, I was asked by a reported from _The Warlock Digest_ why I wasn't doing anything to stop the Death Eaters."

"You let someone working for that trash heap bother you, Harry?"

"No." Harry said. "I let her get me worked up. I know that I'm helping but the fact remains that people don't think I'm doing enough."

"Why does that matter?"

"Because I'm not doing enough." Harry said plainly. "I have no interest in becoming an Auror. I'm not going to race out and start killing Death Eaters. But the Ministry still desperately needs overhauled, even with Kingsley as Minister of Magic. We have dozens of old laws that we need to get off the books. This is the first step in that plan."

That first step was a meeting of the members of Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix. The next night, in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom at Hogwarts, every former member of the two organizations that had survived the war congregated in the classroom. To some extent, it was almost as much of a reunion as it was anything else. Harry noticed that of all the people that he had invited, only Charlie Weasley, still working in Romania, had been unable to make it.

Harry watched as people filed into the room, usually one at a time. Dozens of old friends stopped by to greet him, including Katie Bell and Lee Jordan, who passed him a wedding invitation for their weekend in just ten days. Apparently, with how intensely the two of them worked, they had spent months engaged with no wedding planning happening.

So, they eventually decided to throw a huge party at Lee's new loft in London, get a Ministry representative and invite some friends over for their wedding. According to Lee, it would be a small affair, only their closest friends and family along with all of Katie's former teammates. Katie gave Harry a knowing look when she said that he should bring a date before immediately turning to say hello to Ginny, who was standing next to him.

Unfortunately, word got out to the one person that Harry didn't want invited. As Mundungus Fletcher attempted to enter the room, Harry stopped him at the door.

"No." said Harry simply.

"No?" Dung replied, clearly confused.

"You abandoned your post in Little Whinging when you were supposed to be watching me. You stole from Grimmauld Place. You abandoned Moody during my escape from Privet Drive. You have proven yourself to be nothing but self-interested. You only participated in the Order because Dumbledore routinely got you out of any Azkaban time."

"So you ain't gon' let me in?"

"I'm not." Harry said shortly as Minerva came up behind Harry. Immediately, Dung smiled, clearly expecting Minerva to wave Harry away and welcome Dung with open arms. Instead, she simply stood behind him, her arms crossed.

"You heard what he said, Dung."

"So you the one runnin' the show then, eh?" Dung asked. "You know even Dumbledore knew that he needed a scoundrel for some things, right?"

"Well, if we find ourselves in need, we know where to find you." Harry said. "Now, I'm still not certain how you got on Hogwarts ground. But however you did, retrace your steps and leave before I forcibly remove you. It's either that or I can find Kreacher and he can do it."

"Fine. I'm leavin'!" Dung said as he walked away from the door, muttering something about " _that crazy house elf."_

"I noticed that you had left his name off the list." Minerva commented. "I see that it was intentional."

"You'll see why in a couple of minutes." Harry said as moved towards the front of the room. Almost immediately, the room went quiet. Harry took a moment to look around, making sure that he caught the eye of every single person in the room before he started. As he looked around, he also counted. As far as he knew, the Order of the Phoenix in all of its forms was never larger than twenty people at one time. Dumbledore's Army in its largest form was comprised of twenty-nine people.

Including Harry, there were forty-two people in the room. There was the Minister of Magic, the Junior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, the owner of the largest independent business in Diagon Alley, former and current Hogwarts professors, Quidditch players and managers, Aurors, Department Head and Deputy Department Heads.

Not to mention the Golden Trio themselves.

While the Wizengamot was arguably the most powerful room in the country at any given time, the parties gathered here would certainly give them a run for their money.

"Thank you all for coming." Harry said warmly, genuinely touched that everyone had shown up with only a simple invitation from Harry. "Now, I'm sure that you all have some questions about why you're here."

"Damn straight!" George shouted from the back of the room. "I thought I was done listening to blowhards in this classroom!"

As expected, the room burst into laughter, only barely recovering in time for Harry to continue talking a minute later.

"I've asked you here," Harry said, fighting through the giggles that still permeated the room "to ask you to join me on a...quest of sorts. The Order of the Phoenix was created in secret, designed to use subterfuge to bring Voldemort's regime to its knees. In the same way, Dumbledore's Army was created to destabilize Dolores Umbridge's regime at Hogwarts. Their origins may be separated by decades but the ultimate goal of their purpose eventually became the same: defeat Lord Voldemort."

"Thankfully, we don't have to do that on our own anymore." Harry said, motioning towards Kingsley, who sat in the front row. "But I don't believe that the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army have outlived their usefulness. Instead, I think that we just need to adjust the goals of the organizations."

"What do you mean exactly?" Percy asked from his seat next to Kingsley. "You don't intend to undermine the Ministry?"

"Of course I do! That's why I invited the Minister and his Junior Undersecretary!" Harry said sarcastically, which caused the whole room to chuckle once more. "Percy, I don't have any need to undermine the Ministry. However, I do believe that the Ministry still needs changes. Since its inception, it has been entirely legal to refuse someone a job simply because of their blood status, which includes lycanthropy. For those of us that were at Hogwarts during my third year, I think we can safely say that lycanthropy shouldn't be a reason that someone is refused a job. Nor should the fact that they are Muggleborn."

Harry looked at Hermione, who was smiling ear to ear with tears creeping down her cheek as she watched her best friend speaking up for someone like her. For years, people had expressed how much they didn't seem to care about Hermione's blood status.

Yet, for all their protestations, no one had ever done anything to eliminate the laws that would have prevented Hermione from being refused a job for any reason other than her aptitude. Assuming that she was applying for anything other than a job in Divination or flying a broomstick, they would be hard pressed to do so.

"It is my goal to ensure that, by the time that Teddy Lupin is old enough to go to Hogwarts, all laws regarding someone's blood status will be removed from the books. It is my goal that in the next decade, we give appropriate rights to house elves, centaurs, goblins and any number of other beings that deserve equal treatment."

"You honestly expect goblins to join the Ministry of Magic?" Michael Corner asked, which caused Ginny to laugh from her spot in the back of the room. Harry smiled at Ginny as he answered Michael's question.

"If goblins want to join the Ministry, then we should be willing to look for certain accommodations to ensure that we can work together." Harry said. "But the goblins will never let us interfere with their internal politics. In the same way, we wouldn't be willing to allow them to interfere with ours. This doesn't mean that we should recognize them as their own entity and grant them certain rights."

"Like what?" Lee Jordan asked.

"The right to carry a wand, first of all."

Immediately, the room buzzed with conversation which Harry quieted quickly so that he can continue.

"For centuries, the wizards and goblins of our country have fought for control. In fact, we are in the longest peacetime between the two sides since the beginnings of the Ministry itself. Both sides have long fostered mistrust and jealousy for the others. They envy our wands, we envy their metals and the bank. By opening the lines of communication with the goblins, we can help ensure a peaceful future for both sides."

The reaction to that statement was interesting. By not committing himself to anything, Harry could watch each person as they realized that simply talking to the goblins, and being open the idea that there might be more ways in which the two sides are similar than in which they differ, they could potentially open up a world where they no longer feared that the goblins would revolt again someday.

"I'm asking nothing from you today." Harry said, pushing forward with his pitch. "But in the future, we will."

"We?" George asked. "Who is we?"

"So far, the official structure of the new Order of the Phoenix is just two people: myself and Hermione Granger, who will run the organization when the time comes."

"Why wouldn't you run it?" Cho asked.

"Because that's not where my skills lie." Harry replied. "I will be highly involved in the operation of the Order and as its most public figure, I will certainly be involved in how the organization is run but I have entrusted Hermione with the job of running this organization for the time being. In the future, we will decide how to establish to a more...inclusive model for leadership within the Order of the Phoenix. Until that time, I will be asking several of you to take on leadership roles within the Order, assuming you decide to join.""

"Why are you calling it the Order of the Phoenix? Why not Dumbledore's Army?" Justin Finch-Fletchley asked.

"Because we're not an Army anymore." Harry replied. "We're trying to become a force of change, a new _order_ as it were."

Harry could see that the people around the room weren't entirely convinced. Whether that was because they didn't believe in Harry's vision or because they weren't certain they wished to participate, Harry couldn't immediately be certain.

"I intend to have the first meeting of the official group before the end of the school year. At this meeting, Hermione and I will have established some short term goals that we wish to achieve within the next two years. After that meeting, all further meetings will be held at Greymoor Tower, my family's home. You'll be granted access to the property once you have confirmed your membership."

"What happens if we decide not to join?" Hestia Jones asked.

"Nothing." Harry replied. "We are all adults and can make our own decisions. However, how many of you wish to join?"

Almost half the room raised their hand instantly. Even more raised their hand in the following seconds, leaving only a handful of holdouts.

"This is the future of our Ministry and our country." Harry said, waving his hands towards the other outstretched arms in the room. "We'll be future Ministers of Magic, Department Heads, Chief Aurors. We will hold influence in every important corner of the Ministry."

"Isn't that just what the Purebloods did?" Ernie MacMillan asked.

"It is." Harry replied.

"Then how are we any different?"

"Because, we won't be using our money to buy votes. We won't be using our influence only to benefit ourselves and we certainly won't be lining our pockets because of the laws that we make. We'll be inspiring a new generation of freethinking witches and wizards who understand that it does not matter how you were born but what you become. We'll do this by appealing to the inherent good in everyone. It will take time and effort but by endearing ourselves to our fellow man, we'll see to it that everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their dreams."

Hermione gave a small cough, which caused Harry to look back to her. In the back of the room, she wrote out the letter S-N-A-P-E in the air.

"There is one more thing, a secret that everyone in this room deserves to know." Harry said. "Some of you, because of your positions in the Ministry or personally proximity to me, already know this. There was a member of the Order of the Phoenix who we believed lost forever. A member who perpetrated a horrific crime in Voldemort's service. Despite what it may have looked like at the time, that man was truly Dumbledore's ally and his greatest spy. His name was Severus Snape."

Harry scanned the room and saw several jaws that looked as if they would never connect with the rest of their faces ever again because of how low they hung.

"How do I know this for certain, you ask?" Harry asked rhetorically. "In the moments before his death at the fangs of his Voldemort's pet snake, Snape passed to me a series of memories. During the hour long armistice, I returned to Dumbledore's office and I viewed these memories. In these images, I saw a young boy, Snape, and a young girl. Her name was Lily."

Again, hushed voice started murmuring all around the room.

"Yes, this was my mother. Before they had come to Hogwarts even, Snape and my mother were friends and over time, Snape developed feelings for my mother. However, my mother did not view Snape the same way. Over time, this unrequited love and Snape's love of the Dark Arts separated the two of them."

"Then, just before I was born, Snape overheard part of Sybil Trelawney delivering a prophecy to Dumbledore, the prophecy that would spur Voldemort to decide to kill me. It was Severus Snape that delivered that prophecy to Voldemort. When Snape realized that Voldemort meant to attack me, and in turn kill my parents, he begged Voldemort to spare her but to no end. Realizing he had no other choice, he turned to Dumbledore and begged him to hide my family. In return, Snape would pledge his undying allegiance to Dumbledore."

"Unfortunately, we know that they were unsuccessful in hiding my parents due to Peter Pettigrew's betrayal. Still, Snape...protected me on Dumbledore's orders for years. While he hated me because of the similarities I share with my father, he protected me."

"But Snape killed Dumbledore." Dean Thomas said.

"He did. The task was originally to fall to Draco Malfoy, punishment for his father's failures at the Department of Mysteries. However, it was arranged between Dumbledore and Snape that Snape would commit the act instead."

"Why not just prevent Malfoy from killing Dumbledore at all?" Oliver Wood asked.

"Because Dumbledore was already dying. Those of you that saw his hand know that it looked like it was dead already and that curse was spreading. Dumbledore knew that he would be dead within a year. Rather than simply die, Dumbledore sought to have his death mean something. By having Snape kill him, he ensured that Malfoy's soul was not broken and he guaranteed that Snape would be trusted by Voldemort."

"Snape concocted the plan to get me out of Privet Drive, passing the information to Mundungus Fletcher who suggested the idea to Moody. He then ensured that he was named Headmaster of Hogwarts. Without his presence, people like Neville, Ginny and Luna would certainly have been killed. Only Snape's presence and newfound respect within the Death Eaters ensured that this didn't happen."

"You don't know that." Neville said, clearly insulted by the idea that Snape did anything but hurt the students at Hogwarts last year.

"I know that Snape was the only Death Eater who sent students to Hagrid for detention instead of the Carrows." Harry countered. "Don't forget, Neville, I wasn't told this. I quite literally saw these memories."

"Which can be tampered with." Kingsley said.

"Trust me, I have seen tampered memories." Harry said with a furtive look in Slughorn's direction, who immediately blushed. "These were not tampered. Snape was a member of the Order of the Phoenix until the end. He worked in secret to honor my mother's memory. Now, this doesn't mean that I like the man."

"So you won't be naming one of your children after him?" George asked as he elbowed his sister.

"Not on your life." Harry laughed. "No, Snape was still an ass. But Sirius once told me that the world isn't separated into good people and Death Eaters. Snape was the perfect example of that. He was one of the most horrible people that I've ever had the misfortune to meet and yet he died for our cause. When Greymoor Tower is opened, his name will among those honored for their sacrifice during the war."

"Why?" Ron asked. "He tortured you for years. Why honor him like that?"

"Because, in the end, we wouldn't have had a chance to defeat Voldemort without him. While I may not like him, I can respect him for that."

Harry sat back on the desk behind him, physically drained from having to relive those memories again. In fact, as Harry sat, all he could think of was that the last time he had analyzed those memories so closely, he had gone into the Forest just a few minutes later.

Thankfully, he would not be forced to do the same this time.

"Any other questions?" Harry asked. When no one raised their hand, he smiled tiredly. "Thanks for coming. I'll send more information to everyone when I decide when we're going to meet again."

Within just a few minutes, everyone but Kingsley, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione had exited the room. While Ron, Ginny and Hermione sat in the back and spoke quietly to themselves, Kingsley approached him.

"Be careful, Harry."

"Careful of what?"

"You keep talking like this and people will think you're running for Minister of Magic." Kingsley said with a smirk before he walked out the door. Harry considered that sentiment for a moment. For years, Harry had assumed that he would be an Auror. Now, he wanted to be a professor at Hogwarts.

But the more Harry thought about it, the more the idea of being Minister of Magic didn't sound terrible at some point in the distant future. However, even if that was something that he would eventually consider, it would be years from now.

For now, he had other things to worry about, including his girlfriend, who he had neglected far too much over the last few days.


	34. Thirty-Four

**A/N: This chapter has probably the most overt adult content in the entire story. Thankfully, it's not a bad thing but consider yourself duly warned.**

 **A/N 2: This story is finished being written with about ten chapters left to go. Expect a new chapter every 2-4 days for the next couple of weeks.**

* * *

Between Katie's new position with the Falmouth Falcons, Lee's position as an Auror, and a quite sizeable inheritance left from Lee's grandparents, the soon to be newlyweds lived in one of the most upscale Muggle penthouses in London. When Harry and Ginny walked in the front door a couple of weekends after the Order meeting, they were shocked by what they saw. The penthouse itself was three stories tall with tinted glass windows blocking the magic inside from the outside world, much like the glass in Ron and Percy's flat.

While neither Katie or Lee came from Muggle families, the decor inside the apartment was a startling mix of Muggle and magical items. The chandelier in the center of the apartment looked modern until you noticed that there were candles in the fixtures instead of light bulbs. In fact, that seemed to be a common theme, Muggle looking items (like a refrigerator) adapted to use magic (in this case, the plug was clearly left out of the outlet in the wall. Lee would later tell Harry that it ran on a Cooling Charm).

Almost immediately, Harry and Ginny were rushed by George and Ron. Ron, of course, was accompanied by Angelina, who wore a shocking pink dress and heels that made her one of the tallest people in the room. However, it was George's date that was the most shocking thing in the room.

"Luna?" Ginny asked as the pale witch walked towards them, a vacant smile on her face.

"Oh, hi." Luna said, her smile faltering slightly. "I didn't know you two would be here too."

"I played with Katie." Harry said.

"Right." Luna said as Harry turned to George.

"What happened to Alicia?"

"There was nothing there." George said. "She was just my date for New Year's. I love Alicia but she would never stand to date me. She wants a quieter life than I would ever be willing to live."

The group of six, a strange mix of Weasleys and their dates, stood in the center of the room, talking for several minutes as they watched the people around them. For the most part, Harry recognized everyone. For those that he didn't recognize, Harry could guess that they now worked with either Katie or Lee.

Harry was proved right as Ron took Harry and Ginny around the room, introducing him to at least six or seven Aurors and roughly a dozen Quidditch players, which nearly caused Ginny to faint at one point when Olive Hilton, one of her favorite players (that didn't play for the Harpies), told her that she was honored to meet Ginny. Harry could feel Ginny's legs begin to shake as she rocked back into Harry, using him to hold her up as she tried to formulate sentences, something that Harry would spent most of the next twenty minutes making fun of her for.

"Why do you find this so funny?" Ginny eventually asked as they stood in line for drinks.

"Because you are dating the most famous person in the room." Harry said. "Look around. Every person in the room that wasn't in school with us keeps eyeballing us."

"Yes, but I've known you since you were eleven." Ginny replied. "When you know someone that well, the mystique kind of disappears."

"A stark contrast from a ten year old Ginevra Weasley who couldn't be in the same room as me."

"Yeah, well, you're a bit dim when you're ten."

Just then, George appeared on the balcony of the top floor.

"Witches and wizards, would you kindly clear a path?" George shouted before waving his wand, which caused the front door of the apartment to come flying open.

At the same time, Lee, dressed all in white, Apparated right in front of the windows on the first floor. Harry and Ginny, who stood on the second floor, both moved to get a better look at Katie, who was walking in the front door, following the path of people towards where Lee stood. Katie looked gorgeous in her simple white dress. Much like Katie's personality, there was nothing extravagant about the dress. There was no lace, no veil, nothing besides a form-fitting white fabric with almost no back to speak of, revealing the muscular form that she had clearly worked hard to develop over the years.

Katie joined Lee at the front of the room. At the same time, a nameless officiant stepped forward and delivered an opening speech about the love of two people. Less than a minute later, he was done speaking and he turned to Lee.

"Lee, do you take Katie to be your wife from this day forward?"

"I do." Lee said, a wide grin on his face.

"Katie, do you take Lee to be your husband from this day forward?"

"Of course." Katie replied.

"By the power vested in me by the Minister of Magic, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Witches and wizards, may I introduce Mr. Lee Jordan and Mrs. Katie Bell-Jordan!"

The whole wedding ceremony had taken less than two minutes. But considering the two people involved, Harry supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised. Immediately, Lee pulled Katie towards him and kissed her passionately, which ilicited a fair number of hoots and hollers from the crowd to accompany the applause of the room.

When Lee and Katie finally separated, Lee turned to face their guests.

"Thank you all for coming." Lee said warmly, his hand still in Katie's. "We couldn't have imagined this day without the support of those that we love. But, before we continue with our festivities, we would like to take a moment to honor one of our closest friends, Fred Weasley."

Immediately, a hush fell over the room as the attention shifted momentarily from Lee to George who had remained on the top floor.

"Fred was a dear friend to Katie and I. Without him and George, we likely would have never gotten together. It's why we're naming our first child after him."

The hush in the room lingered for just a moment before everyone realized just what Lee was announcing. Immediately, George sprinted from his spot on the top floor, racing down the stairs so that within just a few seconds, he stood in front of Lee and Katie.

"First child?"

"We waited too long to get married." Katie said, placing a gentle kiss on Lee's cheek. "I just couldn't keep my hands off of him."

"Fred should be born in September." Lee said to George. "You'll be the godfather, of course."

For a moment, George froze, unable to speak. But the tears that were flowing from his face told everyone more than the words that George would have said. Instead, he simply wrapped his arms around Lee and Katie, pulling them close as the rest of the room cheered wildly for the newly married couple and soon to be parents.

As far as Harry knew, they were the first of Harry's former schoolmates to have children. Of course, the last year had not necessarily been the most child-friendly time.

"Now, everyone get something to drink and party!" Lee shouted, which garnered another round of cheers from the crowd. As everyone else moved around them, Harry and Ginny remained in their spot on the first balcony.

"Wow." Ginny said. "That happened fast."

"Did it?" Harry asked. "They've been engaged for quite awhile now. Since my birthday at least."

"Yeah but they're having a kid already."

"Well, Lee is twenty-one and Katie is twenty. They're not the youngest people to have children. Both of our parents were younger than that when they had their first child."

"I suppose." Ginny replied. "I guess I never really got to see that because I was the youngest."

Only seconds after Lee's announcement, the apartment went from cordial wedding ceremony to raucous celebration. Music seemingly came from nowhere and every glass in the room was self-filling from a list of drinks provided by a number of large placard boards posted around the room.

Harry and Ginny wandered the room, chatting with everyone they knew and actively avoiding the few people who seemed to be following them simply to look at them. While Harry had long understood just how famous he was, this was something different. These were people were invited because they were newer friends of Katie and Lee's. As a result, they had never met Harry Potter before.

However, rather than be a decent person and politely introduce themselves, they simply trailed behind Harry and Ginny for nearly an hour. This was quite a feat considering how large Katie and Lee's penthouse was and how hard Harry and Ginny were trying to ditch them.

Eventually, Ron walked right up to them and told them that if they didn't stop following Harry, he would throw them out the window. Needless to say, they stopped hanging onto Harry and Ginny after that, which allowed them to simply enjoy themselves.

As the night wore on, the music got louder and with the refilling glasses, people were bound to get too rowdy. That was when Katie revealed a brilliant charm that she had placed on the glasses that kept track of how much the person drank. Eventually, the charm would stop working if the person got too drunk or started talking too loud. Even changing glasses wouldn't have an effect as the charm was linked to every glass in the room, meaning that it could sense exactly who was holding the glass and whether or not that person had held any other glasses in the room.

It was a wonderful idea to ensure that the party stayed safe and low maintenance without someone getting so drunk that they fell off the balcony.

Eventually, people started to leave with only the Gryffindors, who had been closest to the newlyweds the longest, and their dates remaining. Much like New Year's, it felt a bit like a reunion of Harry's old Quidditch teams. In fact, every person that Harry had played with that was still living was present and dancing joyously on the dance floor with Katie and Lee at the center. Lee had a massive bottle of something that Harry didn't recognize in his hand while Katie had Angelina and Alicia at her side.

While Harry would never truly feel comfortable in such a over the top environment, he couldn't help but smile as he danced the night away.

By the time midnight struck, the music had finally started to relax a bit. Harry and Ginny stood among the other couples present, Ginny's head on his shoulder as the couple rotated slowly, swaying to the feel of the music.

"Do you think one day we'll just be able to do this and not worry about whether we're all going to die tomorrow?" Ginny asked.

The question came out of nowhere and for a moment, Harry was taken aback and left incapable of summoning any sort of response. Eventually, he was able to collect himself as he ran his hands down Ginny's back, trying to comfort her as much as he could.

"I hope so." Harry said.

"Merlin, I wish Fred were here." Ginny replied, gripping the sleeves of Harry's jacket. Harry could tell that she was fighting back tears. It wasn't hard to guess why. Fred and George's best friend had been Lee. Having George here without Fred did seem wrong, even if Lee and Katie were naming their son after Fred.

But all of this just served as a reminder that Fred was no longer with them. In the months following the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry, like everyone else, had slowly returned to a life of normalcy. That meant, however, when the things hit them that reminded them of those that they had lost, it felt like a knife had been buried in their chest. Harry wasn't sure which was worse: the dull but constant burn or the sharp and sudden thrust of the knife?

"I know. I do too." Harry replied. "I wish Fred were here. I wish Colin was at Hogwarts. I wish Remus and Tonks were around to take care of Teddy. We've just got to keep moving and we have to cherish those that remain behind."

"Like you?" Ginny said, leaning up to kiss Harry gently.

"Like me." said Harry when they separated. "Like your family. There's Hermione and Neville and Luna and dozens of people that are still here that we can lean on. We just have to keep focusing on that."

"You're right." Ginny said. "It's just hard."

"I know it is. It's always going to be hard. But it has gotten easier, right?"

"It has."

"That's all we can hope for." Harry said.

By three in the morning, the party had finally died out. Even those that remained were simply sitting in the lounge chairs that overlooked the city. Almost everyone present was drunk, asleep, or both. When Harry noticed that Ginny was starting to nod off, he finally made the decision to leave.

Harry and Ginny congratulated the happy couple one more time before Harry turned to Apparate, returning them to 12 Grimmauld Place. The original plan was to then take the Floo Network back to Hogwarts. Knowing that they would be back late, Harry had arranged for the pair to be returned to the fireplace in his own Common Room for one night only.

However, as Harry pulled Ginny towards the fireplace, Ginny resisted.

"Let's stay here tonight."

"We're supposed to go back to school." Harry replied. "You got a special exemption to leave the school for the wedding."

"Send McGonagall a letter saying that we stayed here." Ginny said as she approached Harry. Immediately, Harry noticed Ginny's hands, which were running up and down his back underneath his jacket.

"She won't like that."

"Then don't send a letter. We'll just say that we fell asleep here. You say you're sorry, I say I'm sorry and then we'll be all alright."

While Harry didn't like the idea of upsetting McGonagall, Harry did like the idea of staying with Ginny, something they couldn't risk at Hogwarts. Reluctantly, Harry nodded his head.

"We're probably going to get detentions for this." Harry said as he rolled his eyes.

"It'll be worth it." Ginny said as she grabbed Harry by the collar and pulled his lips to hers, nearly causing him to fall over. Thankfully, he did not, catching himself on the top of the armchair by the fire. Just a second later, Harry felt Ginny's hands on the collar of his jacket, desperately trying to take it off. Harry threw his arms backwards and almost immediately, the jacket fell to the floor as Harry, his lips still one with Ginny's, pushed her towards the stairs. Once they reached the stairs, Harry broke away and dragged Ginny by the hand up the stairs towards his room. However, before he could get to the top floor, Ginny shoved him off the platform on the second floor, slamming him roughly against the wall.

Ginny then took each part of Harry's shirt in each hand and tore, ripping the buttons off the shirt and exposing his chest to Ginny, who eagerly took this opportunity to remove her mouth from Harry's lips before placing a series of kisses across Harry's chest, which only proved to cause Harry's heart to pound harder and faster.

When he could no longer take her teasing, Harry took Ginny by the hand and tried to lead her up the stairs. But before he could do that, Ginny pulled in the opposite direction, leading him down the hallway. At first, Harry didn't know exactly what Ginny was doing.

It was only when she quite literally threw him into the bathroom that Harry got a sense for her plan. Ginny followed Harry inside the bathroom. This bathroom, one of four in the house, was small, with just a toilet, sink and shower. When the Order had used the house as its headquarters, it had been used relatively regularly.

But since Harry, Ginny and Hermione had moved in, it had been left alone. Harry felt Ginny's hands on his chest, forcing him to sit on the lid of the toilet.

"I feel like a shower." Ginny said, her voice sounding dark and needy.

"Really? Now?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Yes. _Now."_

The shower, a single stall, had been enchanted so that all you had to do was step in the shower and the water would start, already the perfect temperature for whomever had just stepped in. So, when Ginny stepped in, and the water started running down her body, her dress still on, the glass almost immediately fogged up, due to the heat of the temperature that Ginny clearly preferred.

Through the fogged glass, Harry could see Ginny's silhouette as she slowly pulled the straps of her dress down her arms one at a time. It was immediately clear that Harry that she was putting on a show for him, one that he enjoyed greatly. Once she was finished with the straps, she turned away from Harry and rolled the dress down, inch by inch, until the dress finally dropped to the floor.

While the glass was fogged, Harry didn't need much of an imagination to see through the fog. While had already seen what was hidden behind the glass, this was different. That night over the summer, Harry had been shy and Ginny had been nervous. Eventually, they both warmed up to the other but it had taken time.

Tonight, it was clear exactly what Ginny wanted and Harry, greatly intrigued by the tantalizing shape behind the glass, could wait no longer. He tore the rest of his clothes off before he joined Ginny under the water. The second his skin touched hers, it almost felt as if it burned with pleasure.

"What took you so long?" Ginny said as Harry, who stood behind her, planted kisses down her shoulder.

"I was enjoying the view." Harry muttered, his heart pounding and his hands aching to wander the flesh in front of him.

"Well, what are you waiting for now?" Ginny asked.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked in her ear, which Harry was pleased to see caused goosebumps to appear all over Ginny's skin despite the heat of the shower. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to fuck me." Ginny growled.

"Gladly." Harry said, the beast in his chest roaring loudly. In the future, Harry and Ginny would make love again, much like they had over the summer. But tonight was not one of those nights. Tonight was a night to make up for all of the time that they had missed. As Harry peppered soft kisses across her naked shoulders, the hot water brushing against his lips, Harry took Ginny's hips in his hands and thrust into her, causing Ginny to lean forward and grab the wall for support as she moaned loudly.

There was no patience in their act. Over and over again, Harry thrust deep into Ginny, causing Ginny to cry out with glee and leaving her almost unable to stand. The first time that Ginny came, she rode it out, letting Harry continue to pump into her without breaking.

The second time, however, she dropped to the floor, her legs unable to support her any longer. Harry, in a primal state that he didn't know even existed, got down onto his knees, flipped Ginny onto her back and continued until finally, unable to hold back anymore, Harry pulled out and came all over her stomach, Harry's mouth finally finding hers as they held each other, each of them riding out their high, the water quickly washing away all evidence of their act.

"Sweet Merlin." Ginny said, her body still trembling. "Harry, what the fuck?"

"Was that bad?" Harry asked with uncertainty. In response, Ginny grabbed his face and kissed him deeply, her tongue dancing against Harry's.

"You have my permission to join me in the shower whenever you want." Ginny replied. "If you can do that to me again, you have my permission to join me anywhere."

"Assuming people aren't around." Harry replied.

"Hell, maybe even with people around." Ginny said as she ground her hips into his groin.

"Don't start what you can't finish." Harry replied, his body instinctively matching Ginny's motion.

"I'll bet you can't come again." Ginny said as she reached down and guided Harry inside her once more, causing Harry to hiss with ecstasy.

"Challenge accepted."

When Harry awoke the next morning in his bedroom at Grimmauld Place, he immediately noticed Ginny's naked form laying almost entirely on top of him. Despite the fact that they had spent several hours in bed together after they had gotten out of the shower, Harry immediately felt his skin begin to tingle with arousal as he rubbed his hands up and down Ginny's uncovered back. After a few seconds, GInny shifted in her sleep, causing Harry to stop.

"You had better keep going or I'll murder you." Ginny grumbled into Harry's neck.

"Good morning to you too." Harry said, kissing Ginny gently on the forehead.

"Is it morning? What time is it?"

"Nearly eleven." Harry said as he checked his watch. "We have to get up."

"Why?"

"Because I promised Hermione that I would go with her to Bathilda's at noon today."

"You guys are going on a Sunday?" Ginny asked.

"You should see the amount of shit we have to go through." Harry replied. "Whole rooms with stacks of notes taller than you."

"Yeah, then I suppose we should probably get up. Wouldn't want Hogwarts to come tumbling down because you were too busy getting laid."

Ginny stood up and sauntered away from Harry, her hips swinging back and forth provocatively, driving Harry wild. Despite the numerous fantasies formulating in his mind, Harry knew that he had to focus. Quickly, Harry jumped up and grabbed his clothes before heading to the bathroom to shower. Once he was done, he met Ginny back in the living room where they quickly used the fireplace to travel back to Hogwarts.

Thankfully, they were able to avoid any awkwardness of meeting Minerva as her office was empty. Harry walked down the stairs to the entrance of his door, kissing Ginny goodbye before walking in to find Hermione already hard at work on homework.

"Good morning." Harry said.

"Morning." Hermione said as she swiveled around in her chair. "So where did you end up last night?"

The look on Hermione's face was immediately unreadable. Thankfully, Hermione, who had never been a good liar (at least not to Harry), broke, a playful smile crossing her face.

"Did you guys have a good time?" Hermione asked, letting Harry off the hook.

"We did. The wedding was nice."

"I'm sure it was." Hermione said with a knowing wink.

Within the hour, Harry and Hermione returned to Minerva's office to Floo to Bathilda's home. Again, the office was empty when they entered so they wasted no time in grabbing the bag of powder and Flooing to Bathilda Bagshot's former home. Over the next several hours, Harry and Hermione continued their traditional way of processing all of Bathilda's notes. Harry would read through something and then pass it to Hermione, who would take copious notes about the text. Because she read far quicker than Harry, these two tasks usually ended up taking about the same amount of time.

As the afternoon started to turn to evening, and the sun eventually began to sink over the horizon, Harry and Hermione pressed on, determined to find the answers they were looking for. After reading a series of notes on the creation of the first true curriculum of Hogwarts, established roughly one hundred years after the founding of the school, Harry reached for the next book and noticed that it was different.

Almost all of the other texts that they had looked through were written entirely in Bathilda's script. If they weren't they were notated so heavily that Harry was immediately reminded of Snape's notes in his Potions textbook. But as Harry took his customary flip through the book, he noticed that Bathilda hadn't made a single note on a single page. It was pristine, kept exactly in its original condition.

That's when Harry noticed the front cover. The book was leather bound, the leather a dark brown that cracked on its spine, showing that the book had been opened and closed dozens of times. But it was the coat of arms on the center that he recognized. While it didn't look the same as it did today, there was no questioning that the animal in question in the center of the coat of arms was a badger, the animal that represented Hufflepuff House.

"Hermione?" Harry said as he showed her the book. It took her only a second to realize exactly what Harry held in his hand before she reached out and snatched it from him, immediately scanning the pages.

"Merlin, this is Helga Hufflepuff's private journal." Hermione whispered reverently. "This is incredible. There is nothing like this out there. Everything we have on the Founders is second hand accounts, stories told about them."

"We have nothing from their perspective?" Harry asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. The writings would be a thousand years old. Most texts wouldn't even last that long. Plus, this is written in English."

"We're from England, Hermione. Of course it's written in English."

"I know that." Hermione scolded Harry. "But it wouldn't look the same. Language evolves greatly over a thousand years."

"Well, maybe it has some sort of charm on it that lets you read it in whatever language you understand?"

"That's actually not a bad idea." Hermione said as she waved her wand over the book, causing the end of Hermione's wand to glow. "You're right. It's a Translation Charm but the most complex one I've ever seen. It basically tricks the viewer into seeing what language they read in rather than what it's written in."

Hermione handed the book back to Harry.

"Get started." Hermione said.

"You don't want to be the first one to read it?"

"I still have to finish the notes on the last binder you gave me." Hermione said. "Plus, we're both going to get to read it. So get started and then I can read it after you."

"If you say so." Harry said as he took the book back. Taking his seat across from Hermione, he started to read. The tale started with the creation of Hogwarts with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw finding the location where Hogwarts would eventually be built. It took them most of the next twenty-five years to build the castle, even with magic. The sections regarding the construction of the castle never dealt in specifics. Instead, they talked about what each of them were doing more generally.

Slytherin warded the castle, creating the Anti-Apparition ward along with the defenses that Minerva had activated during the Battle of Hogwarts. Ravenclaw designed the castle, including the patterns for all of the moving staircases and eventually charmed the ceiling of the Great Hall herself. Godric Gryffindor was placed in charge of clearing the land for the castle and negotiating a truce with the local herd of centaurs to ensure that they wouldn't attack the students. He also made the castle Unplottable and cast all of the Muggle Repelling Charms on the area.

But, it was Helga Hufflepuff who was directly responsible for the construction of the school. For nearly two decades, she built the school one room at a time. Each room had to be built individually and then properly warded before it was then magically sealed, ensuring that any damage the castle sustained would then repair itself in time. Once all of this was done, all of the wards and charms that were placed on the castle were then tied into a single piece of black, obsidian rock which was then placed at the base of the castle.

"The Keystone." Harry muttered to himself, which immediately caused Hermione to jump up and read over Harry's shoulder. Harry pointed out the section that he had just finished, which Hermione read in about half the time.

"It's real." Hermione said in awe.

"I don't think they call it the Keystone but it certainly seems to exist." Harry said. "They just mention that they put it in the base of the castle. No mention of where exactly."

"The castle is massive." Hermione groaned. "It could be anywhere. Keep reading and see if you can find anything else."

Harry turned back to the book and pressed on. The book detailed the opening of the school in 991 AD where sixteen students, four in each House, were chosen to become the first Hogwarts students. Harry continued reading as Helga wrote about the castle's first two decades as the student body grew from sixteen students to nearly two thousand students at its largest. But as time went on, a rift was growing between the four Founders.

 _June 24, 1019_

 _The four are now the three. Salazar has left us. This has been something that we have expected for going on ten years now. Since we first started this great quest to create our school, the two men have fought. When Rowena first created the idea of a unified school of all Brits, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, two of the most renowned tutors of magic in the land, were the only wizards we considered to join us._

 _That was almost forty years ago. On the first day that we met, Godric and Salazar argued on almost everything. In fact, the only thing that they seemed to agree upon is that they wished to help build the school. For two decades while we built the school, the men argued and toiled against each other. Usually, they argued about Muggles. Godric believed, much like Rowena and myself, that all who showed the potential of magic should be taught._

 _Salazar, however, wished to be more particular, believing that only those who belonged to magical families should be brought into the fold._

 _I have known Salazar Slytherin for nearly fifty years. In the beginning, there was no hate in his heart. I understood his concerns. While we have never been private about our usage of magic, Salazar believes a day will come in which the Muggles, afraid of our abilities, will seek to destroy us. On that day, would those with Muggle families choose to stand with us or against us? Having been forced to watch as magic tore his own family apart, Salazar argued that it was better to let those without magical families go through life with their families than with magic._

 _But over the years, that reasoning has become twisted. For this, I blame Godric Gryffindor. Gryffindor will likely be remembered as the greatest wizard of our time and rightfully so. His abilities dwarfs even that of Rowena Ravenclaw, the most brilliant witch of our age. But the history books will likely ignore his brashness and foolishness as history usually does for great men._

 _In the beginning, Godric and Salazar were able to coexist despite their differences. But as time passed, both men sought to convince the other of the error of their ways. Salazar showed Godric dozens of examples of families who had been separated by magic and whose relationships never recovered. On the other hand, Godric showed Salazar the examples of great Muggle-born witches and wizards and the good they had done in the world._

 _When it became clear to the other that they had no interest in changing their mind, they began a cold war of sorts, each of them rebuking the other for the folly of their beliefs. As time went on and public opinion shifted towards Godric's opinion, Godric became arrogant and foolish. He openly mocked Salazar in front of the students. He talked down to those that Slytherin chose, telling them that they had the misfortune of being chosen by the worst of the Founders. He even went out of his way to ensure that his students knew of Slytherin's beliefs on Muggleborn students, causing a number of students to mistrust Salazar._

 _Salazar's original argument had been well-reasoned. But each time Godric undercut Salazar, a black spot appeared on his heart. He began to assume that all of the Muggleborn students in the school were against him. That paranoia spread deep into the recesses of his mind until every Muggle, Muggleborn and those who supported Muggleborn rights were against him._

 _In the last few years that Salazar spent at the castle, he began spreading his hateful views to the Pureblood students in his House. At the beginning of each school year, he would ask each student if they were related to Muggles. If they were, they would not be selected for Slytherin House, a trait that continued when Godric provided the Sorting Hat to speed up the Sorting process._

 _It was clear to Rowena and I that a break was soon coming but even we could not have expected the threat that came out of Salazar's mouth._

"Years ago, I carved out a place of safety for those of truly magical blood, my Chamber of Secrets. There, I have birthed a splendid creature, a monster who will one day be unleashed on the castle. On that day, all who oppose me will fall and all of the Muggleborn, the lesser and weaker of our kind, will be destroyed!"

 _It has been a month since that day and no one has seen Salazar Slytherin since then. There are rumors that he has appeared in Scandinavia, meeting with witches and wizards who now share his love of the Dark Arts and his hatred of muggleborn witches and wizards._

 _While the school is a safer place without Salazar Slytherin, I can't help but think that this is a great tragedy, one that could have been prevented if two men had been willing to stop and listen to the other. Instead, they spent forty years trying to prove the other wrong. If only they knew then what we knew now, maybe they would have stopped this horrible fight and learned to listen to the other._

While there was more that Harry could read, he stopped there, closing the book and taking a deep breath. This was knowledge older than almost any text that existed in their world today, a personal account of Salazar Slytherin's descent into villany. Of course the story that they had been told for centuries wasn't the complete story. Slytherin's eventual hatred of Muggles and Muggleborn made him an easy villain but the fact that, from the eyes of Helga Hufflepuff at least, Godric Gryffindor bore at least partial responsibility for his downfall was initially surprising.

However, the more Harry thought, the more it made sense. Gryffindors were notoriously stubborn people as he and his closest friends consistently proved. Even if that came from a place of trying to do the right thing, it could sometimes do more damage than good. If Harry had been forced to listen to someone tell him how terrible he was for forty years, would he have been able to avoid becoming the villain they had told him he already was?

Harry passed the book to Hermione as he took a seat on the couch, relaxing until Hermione was finished reading. Harry had read roughly half of the book, which had taken him nearly an hour. Twenty minutes later, Hermione was done and had completed a rather extensive list of notes on the reading. Once she was done, she joined Harry, her head falling onto his shoulder.

"That's the closest we've come." Hermione said.

"We know that the Keystone exists at least." Harry replied. "That gives us something to look for."

"Yes, it does." Hermione said as she looked at her watch. "We have to get back. You have patrol duty starting in twenty minutes."

Harry stood and then helped Hermione to her feet. Quickly, they returned the room to a more organized state before taking the fireplace back to Minerva's office. This time, when they arrived back at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall was seated at her desk.

"How did it go?" she asked, not looking up from the work in front of her.

"We found evidence that the Keystone exists." Hermione said. "A journal written by Helga Hufflepuff."

Immediately, Minerva's quill froze before she looked up at them over her glasses, a look of surprise on her face.

"Excuse me?"

"It was Hufflepuff's personal account of Hogwarts. It started from when they decided to found Hogwarts and based on what we saw, it ended with her death." Harry said. "But it didn't tell us exactly where the Keystone is."

"But it exists." Minerva said as she relaxed back into her chair. "We'll discuss this further in the morning. For now, Miss Granger, may I speak with Harry alone?"

Harry had been waiting for this scolding all day. Hermione patted Harry's arm gently before walking out the door, leaving Harry alone with Minerva.

"I'm sorry that I-"

"There is no need to apologize, Harry." Minerva said. "I too was your age once as impossible as that may seem. I trust that you remained at a safe place?"

"Grimmauld Place."

"Good." Minerva said. "I understand that you both are of age now. I think we can also agree that there is a slightly different set of rules for you than there are for most students. However, while I am not upset, this cannot happen again."

"I understand."

"You will be taking your NEWTs at the beginning of April." Minerva said. "I have informed your professors of this fact and they will be helping you prepare as often as possible during your free periods. Also, I will task Hermione to finish searching for the Keystone."

"I can still help with that."

"No, you can't." Minerva replied. "I have stretched you too thin and for that, I apologize. Much like Albus, you make it difficult sometimes to remember that you are still just eighteen years old and a single person at that. I will enlist Daphne Greengrass to assist Hermione further. Your priority for the next five weeks is to study for those exams."

"What happens when they're done?"

"Normally, you would have to wait several weeks for the results. However, because you are taking them alone, you will get the results that day. If you pass all three, I have been assured that you will be granted the academic waiver by the Ministry."

"That's good." Harry replied.

"Yes because it means that I can make you a professor the next day."

"What?"

"The information that you and Kingsley have given me suggests that the Death Eaters might be planning another attack on the castle." Minerva said. "If this is the case, then we must be prepared. I will make you Bill's assistant through the end of the year so that if that day comes, you can remain with the rest of the staff to protect the castle."

"You expect to be able to get the students out?"

"I have reviewed the plans that you and Miss Greengrass worked up. If the castle is attacked, I believe that we can get most of the students out safely."

"That's good." Harry said. "I'm glad that those will come in handy."

"As am I." Minerva replied proudly. "Now, return to your dorm and get some sleep. The hardest five weeks of your life are coming on up. In addition, I have received word that you are to appear before the Wizengamot on Tuesday to deliver your testimony."

Minerva handed Harry a signed letter from Kingsley.

"Why didn't this letter come to me?" Harry asked.

"Because all mail that is going to you is coming through this office now." Minerva replied. "Additional security measures."

"I understand." Harry said. "Is there anything else?"

"No. Get some rest."

"Yes, ma'am." Harry said before turning and walking out of the office. Harry walked down the stairs and started his patrols of the castle. For nearly the entire hour that Harry had to wander the halls, there was nothing to report. However, just before curfew, Harry was in the dungeons when he heard what could only be described as the sound of someone choking.

At first glance, Harry saw nothing. For a moment, he thought that he may have imagined the noise. He was tired and he had spent most of his day reading. Maybe it was possible that his mind was playing tricks on him?

But when Harry heard the noise for a second time, he knew that it wasn't a trick. Harry followed the noise down the hall to a clearing just a few paces away from the Slytherin Common Room where he saw him. Ethan Webb was lying the middle of the floor, his hands on his chest, his skin pale as a ghost as blood bubbled from a massive hole in his chest.

That sound? It had been the sound of Ethan choking on his own blood. Immediately, Harry drew his wand and turned towards the exit of the dungeons.

" _Expecto Patronum!"_

In a flash of white light, Prongs leapt forward from the end of Harry's wand before turning back to face him.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey." Harry said. "Pass this message, _I am in the dungeons and Ethan Webb has been attacked. Come as quickly as possible."_

Prongs nodded before turning and sprinting away from Harry. At the same time, Harry turned towards Ethan and kneeled down next to him, tearing his cloak off and placing it over the wound, pressing down hard. At the same time, Harry took his wand and waved it over the wound, sensing for what had caused it.

Harry was not surprised to see that it had been Dark magic. However, that meant that simple healing charms would not work. Still, Harry knew enough to keep the wound closed for the time being, which limited the amount of blood that Ethan lost.

"Harry?" Ethan said, tears in his eyes, a look of terror upon his face.

"It's going to be alright, Ethan." Harry said with determination as he continued to cast a number of Healing Spells on Ethan, hoping that one of them would stop the bleeding.

"I don't want to die." Ethan whispered, his voice barely carrying to Harry's ears.

"You are not going to die." Harry said as he waved another analysis spell over Ethan's body. Harry immediately recognized the spell as some modified version of the same _Sectumsempra_ spell that Harry had learned from Snape. Thankfully, Harry had spent some time learning the counter-curse, the song-like charm that Snape had used to fix Malfoy after Harry had used _Sectumsempra_ on him.

"Take my hand." Harry said as he took both of Ethan's blood soaked hands in his left hand. With his right, he began to attempt the _Vulnera Sanentur._ While Harry knew the theory of the spell, he had never been forced to use it before and certainly never under these circumstances. The spell worked in three parts. The first stopped the bleeding, the second closed the wound, and the third stitched it together.

However, when Harry used it, it only did each of these halfway, leaving a partially closed, partially bleeding wound in the center of Ethan's chest. As the blood continued to flow out of the wound, Ethan's head dropped to the stone below with a thud.

"No!" Harry cried out as he once again started the counter-curse. This time, however, he focused every bit of power and energy that he had left into the spell. The first pass of the charm caused the wound to stop bleeding completely. The second pass closed the wound almost entirely. The third pass closed it so that instead of a huge gash left open in the center of his chest, only a wound the size of a quill puncture remained.

While the wound still bled, it was no longer the massive hole that had been there before, blooding flowing freely. Just as Harry finished a third attempt, Madam Pomfrey came rushing down the hall, the click of her heels echoing down the hall as she approached.

"How is he?" she asked as she kneeled across from Harry.

"Not good." Harry said. "The wound is closed but he passed out and I'm not certain that he's breathing."

Moving quickly, Madam Pomfrey performed a quick check on him, confirming Harry's diagnosis.

"Can you lift him?"

"Can I use magic?" Harry asked.

"No. I don't want anything to interfere with the healing that you've done."

While Ethan was much taller and heavier than Harry, he wasn't going to say no. So, he stood over top of Ethan, grabbing his arms and pulling the much larger boy onto his shoulders, driving his feet into the ground so that he could stand. Ethan's weight made Harry incredibly top heavy, meaning that with every step, Harry wondered if he might fall.

"Go, Potter." Madam Pomfrey said. Not wanting to waste another second, Harry ran as fast as he could with Ethan on his shoulders, climbing a number of stairs between the dungeons and the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey on his tail, breathing heavily but keeping up.

By the time they reached the door of the Hospital Wing, Harry's legs were burning and his vision was blurring. Madam Pomfrey opened the door and allowed Harry to pass, who immediately dropped Ethan into the closest bed. Pushing passed Harry, Madam Pomfrey went to work, waving her wand in a complex series of motions, her hand moving fast enough that Harry couldn't even begin to tell what she was doing.

Sitting on the bed across from Ethan, he waited with bated breath, praying that Ethan would wake up. After a few moments, Madam Pomfrey suddenly stuck her wand into the wound and muttered an incantation that Harry didn't know. Immediately, Ethan's lungs began to fill with air and then release at the Healer's direction. Harry realized that she was literally breathing for Ethan, hoping that his body would restart itself.

Sure enough, Ethan coughed once, then coughed again before finally settling into a weak breathing pattern. He wouldn't wake up for another week but when he did, it would be because Harry had been there at just the right time, a sentiment that Madam Pomfrey echoed that night.

"Who did this?" Madam Pomfrey asked. However, Harry didn't need to ask that question. He couldn't immediately identify who had done it but he had a guess as to which House they belonged. Ethan had not been quiet at the beginning of the year about accusing certain people of being Death Eaters due to their association with them. While Elizabeth Carlisle had not been a Death Eater, Harry knew that there were other people in Slytherin House who had families who were Death Eaters.

Typically, Harry would have been wary about immediately assuming that a Slytherin was responsible for this. But, the location of the attack, along with Ethan's previous verbal assaults on the House, made it likely that the perpetrators belonged Slytherin House.

A kind of rage filled Harry who marched from the Hospital Wing back towards the dungeons, covered head to toe in blood. When he reached the stretch of blank stone wall where he knew the Slytherin Common Room stood, he barked out the password: " _Tradition!"_

The Head Boy and Girl were given the password to each House's Common Room in case of emergency. While this may not have been exactly the expected usage, Harry did not feel bad at all as he marched into the Slytherin Common Room. As expected, the Common Room was full of people, most of them having just come into the Common Room due to curfew.

Harry stood in silence, fuming internally as he looked around the room and met the eyes of every student in the room, covered in the blood of Ethan Webb.

"Ethan Webb is a sixth year Hufflepuff student." Harry said, his hands shaking in anger as he spoke. "I found him, not forty feet from the entrance to your Common Room, covered in his own blood. If I had not gotten to him in time and applied the correct counter-curse, one that only a handful of people in this castle know, he would be dead this very night."

Harry stepped forward and immediately, everyone in the room backed away from him.

"If any one of you knows who did this, you will tell me or the Headmistress by tomorrow morning. If I find out that anyone knew something and withheld information, I will ensure that you suffer the same punishment that the offender gets, which will almost certainly be a one way ticket home."

"You think you can expel students?" someone asked. "You're just Head Boy."

"Try me." Harry said as he marched out of the door. The moment he stepped out of the door, Harry leaned against the wall. His legs were aching, his shoulder cramped and his head was pounding. Ethan Webb had nearly been killed and there was no doubt that it was intentional. Harry tried to process that information as he turned and marched down the hallway. Just as he reached the Entrance Hall, a piece of paper floated in front of him.

Harry grabbed the paper and unfolded it, where he saw the following message:

 _Meet me tomorrow at six in the library_

 _Elizabeth_


	35. Thirty-five

By the following morning, the Hogwarts rumor mill was already spinning wild stories about how exactly Ethan Webb ended up in the Hospital Wing. The first story that Harry heard was that Ethan had attempted some sort of Blood Ritual to kill all of the Slytherins while the wildest one that Harry heard (from a second year Slytherin no less) was that Harry had sacrificed Ethan to an ancient deity in order to give him everlasting life but was interrupted by Madam Pomfrey. Needless to say, there wasn't much truth floating around Hogwarts that morning.

After Harry had left the Slytherin Common Room the night before, he had returned to his dorm. When Hermione had seen what he looked like, she had immediately rushed to his side, checking him for injuries. It took several minutes for Harry to get a word in but when he did, he was able to explain to her what had happened. Harry had thrown all of those clothes in garbage, never wanting to wear them again (regardless of if they could be cleaned) and then took a quick shower before almost instantly falling asleep when his head hit his pillow.

By the time that Harry had gotten to breakfast, Ginny somehow already knew about Harry's terrible night as evidenced by the look of worry that was on her face when he arrived for breakfast.

"How are you?" she had asked.

For a moment, Harry considered his response. Then, his mind had flashed images of blood pooling in the massive hole that had been opened in Ethan's chest as blood sprayed from his mouth with every breath and that same fire that had caused Harry to burst into the Slytherin Common Room the night before had returned with a vengeance.

"Pissed." Harry said. "Ethan is an incredibly talented wizard and only a handful of students in the castle could have beaten him one-on-one."

"You think a group of people attacked him." Hermione said.

"I do." Harry replied.

"You honestly think a group of students would attack someone so brazenly." Hermione asked.

"I certainly hope not but it's the only way. Thankfully, I am meeting Elizabeth in the library tonight at six. I hope she can tell me more."

It took all of Harry's concentration to get through the rest of his day and actually focus on his studies. Just as dinner finished and most of the students began to return to their common rooms, Harry slipped out of the Great Hall and walked towards the library. Thankfully, the library was mostly empty with only Madam Pince and a few other students sitting around the room. Harry walked all the way into the back of the room and took a seat at a table.

Within a couple of minutes, Harry spotted Elizabeth walking towards him, although he made no attempt to wave her towards him. He only hoped that no one would notice the two of them talking. If she had some actually information that Harry could use to find out who attacked Ethan, he had to know but the quieter Harry could be while searching for intel, the better the result would be.

Elizabeth sat down at Harry's table. During the course of their conversation, she only occasionally looked in Harry's direction as she pretended to read the book in front of her.

"What do you know?" Harry asked over his copy of The Daily Prophet.

"Marcus Rookwood, Angela Scott and Peter Avery."

Immediately, Harry recognized two of those names. Marcus Rookwood was the nephew of now deceased Death Eater Augustus Rookwood while Peter Avery was actually Peter Avery III, the son of Peter Avery Jr and grandson of Peter Avery Sr. But it was the last name that Harry didn't recognize.

"Angela Scott?" Harry asked. "Who is she related to?"

"Angela Scott's mother is Carissa Scott, formerly Carissa Yaxley."

"Related to Corban, I assume." Harry replied.

"They were cousins." Elizabeth said.

"So why did they choose to attack Ethan now?"

"Because they followed me." Elizabeth said, her eyes immediately darting around the room, clearly trying to determine if someone was listening. "Ethan and I had been...meeting...late at night."

"Were the two of you dating?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I guess you could call it that." Elizabeth replied. "I don't care that Ethan's father is an Auror and neither does most of my House. My father is a monster and deserves the punishment he received. But I knew that there were some that would care so we met in private."

"I assume they noticed you sneaking out at night."

Elizabeth nodded slightly. "I had bribed one of our Prefects so that she could ensure that no one patrolled one of the old classrooms in the dungeons. No one uses it but typically, someone comes by to check the dungeons around midnight. She knew that I was meeting someone there but as long as I was doing her Arithmancy homework, she didn't ask any questions."

"If the Prefect didn't sell you out, how did they find out?"

"I'm not certain." Elizabeth admitted. "Angela is in my year so it's entirely possible that she noticed me getting out of bed. We didn't meet more than once a week though so I don't think that's the case."

"You met once a week?"

"Yes."

"Which day?"

"Sundays."

"Every Sunday?"

"...yes." Elizabeth said, finally realizing her mistake.

"You created a pattern. Every Sunday night, well after curfew, you got out of bed and walked out of the Common Room. I assume that Ethan had been sneaking out of his room far earlier and was waiting for you in the room?"

"He had to. He couldn't convince his Prefects to cover for him so he disappeared into the dungeons at curfew and then waited until the patrols had passed the room before we moved there and hid until I arrived. We would stay until midnight and then I would help him sneak past the Prefects."

Harry couldn't believe that the two of them had done all of this just to steal a couple of hours of time together. It reminded Harry that, for all the good they had done, they still had a long way to go when it came to breaking down some social expectations that had existed for centuries.

"You are certain that it was those three students?" Harry asked.

"When I entered the room, they were already waiting for me, taunting me about how I was dating someone who had helped destroy their lives." Elizabeth said sadly. "I just assumed that Ethan had already run away."

"He was still hiding in the room." Harry realized. "They found him after you left."

"I believe so." Elizabeth said, crying softly as she spoke. "I'm sorry I can't give you anything more than that."

"It's enough to get a couple professors to help me, which is all I really need." Harry said, a plan already formulating in his mind. "What I will need from you is to convince your classmates that you are going out again tomorrow night."

"But Ethan is still in the Hospital Wing."

"You leave that detail to me. You just make it known that you are sneaking out to meet a boy. Be loud about it. Make sure that they know."

"You're going to set a trap for them?"

"Of sorts." Harry replied.

"Won't they suspect that? They know that I suspect it was them. They have to know."

"Exactly." Harry said. "They'll want to finish the job."

Harry stood and, for the first time, looked directly at Elizabeth.

"Remember, tomorrow night. Make it convincing."

"I will."

Harry knew that he could catch the people that attacked Ethan. But his plan would take a couple of days to put together, meaning that before Harry would be able to bring them down, he had to do his best to take down another group of people. That's why Harry returned to the Ministry Tuesday morning, taking the same seat that he had just a few days earlier when the Death Eaters had attacked the Ministry.

Just like the first time that Harry had tried to testify against the Death Eaters, John Dawlish took his seat last, waiting for all of the members of the Wizengamot to take their seat.

"Thank you all for coming." Dawlish said. "Thank you again to Mr. Potter for returning after our...issues the last time. Before we begin, are there any motions for the floor?"

No one dared moved. It was the only time that day when people were more focused on the door behind Harry, fearful that it might explode once more.

"Seeing no motions, I will bring this special session of the Death Eater Tribunal to order." Dawlish said. "Just like in our other sessions, during the questioning period, please refrain from interrupting the proceedings. The only people allowed to speak until Mr. Robinson has yielded his time are Mr. Robinson, Ms. White and Mr. Potter."

Harry noticed that Robert Robinson, the man who had first interviewed Harry in the discovery process was seated at the front of the railing immediately to his right. Meanwhile, seated next to the Death Eaters was a woman dressed entirely in white, her hair white with black streaks. She appeared to be roughly the same age as Molly Weasley, although it was obvious that this woman was trying to hide that fact. Harry assumed that this was the Ms. White in question, the advocate for the Death Eaters.

"The floor is yours, Mr. Robinson." Dawlish said as Robinson stood.

"Thank you, Chief Warlock." Robinson said before stepping from behind the railing and approaching Harry. "Good morning, Harry."

"Robert." Harry nodded.

"You have been previously informed of your rights as a primary witness, correct?" Robinson asked.

"I have."

"You understand these rights?"

"I do."

"Good." Robinson said. "The process for today will be simple. We will move down the list of the accused in order. In each case, I will ask you a series of questions before Ms. White, acting on behalf of the accused, has a chance to cross-examine you. With permission of the Chief Warlock, I may then question you again for no longer than five minutes per subject. Is all of that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Robinson said before returning to the rail where he pulled out his briefcase and then withdrew a stack of papers that he then placed on the table in front of Harry. From what Harry could see, they were piles of notes constructed on each of the accused Death Eaters.

"Harry, tell me what you know about Amycus Carrow."

And on it went with Harry detailing as much information as he could on each of the Death Eaters. As Harry went along, detailing the crime that he had witnessed each of the accused commit, Robinson would interrupt him to ask questions. He informed the court that Amycus Carrow had been present at the Astronomy Tower the night of Dumbledore's death.

When Ms. White had followed up, she had asked Harry how he had known that Amycus Carrow. No report existed that had Harry present for Dumbledore's death.

"I was under my Invisibility Cloak."

"Why?"

"I had been away from the castle, helping Dumbledore locate something that would help destroy Voldemort."

"Locate what?"

Suddenly, Dawlish's voice rang out from his perch. "Mr. Potter is not permitted to answer that question."

"And why not?" Ms. White snapped.

"The answer contains information deemed confidential by the Minister of Magic."

Harry watched as Ms. White stood, grinding her teeth. She was clearly not pleased with that turn of events.

"Very well."

Following his report on Carrow, Harry gave his testimony on Samuel Jugson, who Harry reported was present at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, working with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of the Death Eaters. Then, he spoke about the Lestranges, Rabastan and Rodolphus, who also participated in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

Harry followed up that testimony with a report on the Mulcibers, William Sr. and William Jr. Harry witnessed William Jr. at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and both of the Mulcibers at the Battle of Hogwarts, dueling with Fred and George Weasley.

Finally, Harry got to the person that he really wanted to talk about.

"You have never accused Dolores Umbridge of being a Death Eater. Is that true?" Robinson asked.

"It is." Harry growled, his eyes locked on Dolores, who matched his glare with a burning hatred.

"Can you tell me about the first time you met Dolores Umbridge?"

"It was right here in this room." Harry said. "I was on trial for illegal underage magic. The Ministry was trying to get me thrown out of Hogwarts, thrown out of the magical world."

"You were attacked by Dementors, were you not?"

"I was." Harry replied. "If anyone had bothered to ask for my memories of that night, I would have been glad to provide them. During that proceeding, Dolores Umbridge called into question that very presence of the Dementors being in Little Whinging."

"Why was this a problem?"

"Because she was the one who sent them." Harry said, his voice low and menacing. "She was a fanatic, believing in Cornelius Fudge so fervently that she decided to silence me by sending Dementors my aunt and uncle's home to kill me."

"I object to this statement." Ms. White said. "Mr. Potter does not know for certain that this is why the Dementors were sent."

"Of course, I do." Harry said, laughing openly. "Umbridge told me so just a few months later."

Instantly, the rumor buzzed to life as the members of the Wizengamot whispered to their neighbors. Unlike the rest of the Death Eaters, Dolores Umbridge had been a Ministry official, quite literally the second highest person in the country. If anything would have happened to Fudge, Umbridge would have been the one to take over until a new Minister was selected.

Harry hoped that they all realized just how much evil they had sanctioned by hiring and retaining this toad woman.

"You and Dolores Umbridge did not get along while she was at Hogwarts." Robinson said, moving onto another line of inquiry. "Is this correct?"

"It's the understatement of the century but sure, we didn't get along."

"Can you detail your first detention of the school year with Dolores Umbridge?"

"Would you like to know how I got it or how she punished me?"

"Only the punishment is pertinent to the merits of the case against Dolores Umbridge." Robinson replied.

"Of course." Harry grumbled. "I arrived at Umbridge's office that evening for my detention. When I arrived, there was a desk in the center of her desk with a long roll of parchment and a single black quill. Umbridge informed me that I would be doing lines. I must not tell lies, that's what I was forced to write over and over again. But this quill was different. It didn't use ink, it used blood."

"What do you mean?" Robinson asked.

Harry raised his hand and showed Robinson the scar on the back of his right hand.

"The quill carved this on the back of my hand and used the blood to write on the page. Then, it heals over leaving just the faintest hint of a mark until the next time you write when it happens all over again."

Robinson looked horrified as he stared at the faint lines on Harry's hand. Robinson looked down at his notes but only Harry could see that he wasn't reading as his eyes were closed. He was clearly trying desperately to compose himself but when his eyes opened, Harry could see that he had failed.

"How long did this detention last?"

"The first one lasted five until just after midnight." Harry said.

"The first one? How many times did this happen?"

"Fifteen." Harry said. "I received a week's detention for talking about Voldemort's return, another week for talking back to Umbridge about Quirrell having Voldemort attached to the back of his head, which he did, and another week for the interview that I did with Rita Skeeter and the Quibbler."

"And each time you received detention, the length was the same?"

"Every time." Harry confirmed.

"Merlin." Robinson whispered before turning to Ms. White. "Your witness."

Harry turned to look at Ms. White, whose skin was as pale as the white suit she wore. She was looking at Umbridge, a look of disgust on her face. When the advocate for an entire team of Death Eaters looked at you in horror, you knew that you were a special kind of monster.

Throughout all of this, Harry watched Umbridge, who simply sat in silence, her eyes furiously attempting to burrow a hole in Harry's forehead.

Ms. White still had a job to do, however, so she stepped around the rail and approached Harry.

"Talking back against a teacher is against school rules, is it not?"

Harry laughed in Ms. White's face in response, a full throated laugh that Harry felt in his toes.

"That's your defense. I broke a rule? I broke a rule and so, by that logic, I deserved to be tortured for five hours consecutively on five consecutive days by the Minister of Magic's right hand woman. Is that seriously your defense?"

"You didn't answer the question." Ms. White replied, although she got even paler, if that was even possible.

"Nor will I." Harry replied. "Of all of your clients, Dolores Umbridge is by far the most monstrous of them all. Now, do you have anything else or can we move on?"

Ms. White looked as if she was going to attempt to force him to answer the question, which Harry knew she could do. Instead, she walked back to her seat, taking the loss. At the same time, Umbridge stood from her seat, screaming at Ms. White.

"You filthy half-breed!" she shouted, spittle flying from her lips as she barked like a rabid dog. "You mongrel freak! How dare you let him speak about me like that and do nothing? How dare-"

Whatever else Ms. White dared would never be heard as the red flash of a Stunner hit Umbridge in the back, causing her to fall forward and hit her head on the railing in front of her. The Auror that had stunned her walked over and quickly healed her head before sitting her back up in her seat, unconscious with her head leaning on Yaxley's shoulder.

Speaking of Yaxley, Harry gave a brief statement on the wizard detailing his presence at the top of the Astronomy Tower and the actions he took at the Ministry of Magic. Harry also told them of the duel between Lee Jordan and George Weasley against Yaxley, which the two narrowly won.

"Is there anything else either side wishes to ask of Mr. Potter before he is excused?" Dawlish asked, looking to Robinson and White, both of whom shook their heads.

"Mr. Potter, you may consider yourself excused."

The ordeal at the Ministry had taken him nearly the entire day. Thankfully, his plan to catch the wannabe Death Eaters in Slytherin House was already well underway when he returned to the castle. Per his plan, Ethan Webb had been removed from the Hospital Wing and another Hufflepuff had taken his place under the effect of Polyjuice Potion, providing proof to the Slytherins that he wished to catch that Ethan had survived their attack.

At the same time, Elizabeth Carlisle had told three or four younger Slytherins that she was meeting someone in the dungeons at midnight. While the identity of the person wasn't known, the rumor still spread like wildfire, ensuring that the three attacker would definitely hear about it. If they were as dedicated to killing Ethan as Harry thought, they would once again follow Elizabeth to her midnight rendezvous.

That night, Harry stood under his Invisibility Cloak in the corner of the room where Elizabeth and Ethan had met up. He arrived in the room roughly thirty minutes before midnight and stood in the far corner, waiting for Elizabeth and then the junior Death Eaters to arrive. Just as expected, Elizabeth walked into the room at just a few minutes after midnight.

Instantly, her eyes looked up to the desk in the corner of the room where a single candle burned, the sign that they had agreed upon to let her know that Harry was present. If she did not see that candle, she had been instructed to immediately run to the Headmistress's Office and spend the night there.

Looking at the candle, she nodded softly before taking a seat in the center of the room. Only a few seconds later, the door opened again and just as Harry expected, the three Slytherins filed into the room. Each of them looked at Elizabeth as if she was a tasty meal they were prepared to devour.

"Where's Webb?" Rookwood growled.

Elizabeth, for her part, sold the ruse, leaning back away from the desk in fear. Harry was certain that she was scared but she had volunteered for her part in their plan. She knew the risk and she knew that Harry was there to protect her.

"Why? Here to finish the job?" Elizabeth asked, her voice trembling.

"Why do you care?" Scott asked. "Did you fall in love with the Auror's son? Your father was one of us and you dare fall in love with an Auror's son?"

"Did you do it?" Elizabeth said, steel in her voice. "Did you try to kill him?"

"Of course we did." Avery said, a hint of pride in his voice.

That admission was Harry's cue. Throwing the Invisibility Cloak to the floor, Harry lined up his wand and threw red sparks at them, lighting up the room like it was mid-day, blinding the unsuspecting assailants. In that time, Elizabeth retreated to the corner to stand near Harry, her wand aimed at her classmates.

"Drop your wands!" Harry bellowed as the Slytherins began to regain the sight. As each of them looked at Harry, it seemed as if they were considering raising their wands. But everyone in the room knew the same thing: they had all seen Harry duel and knew just how talented he was. Even with the odds technically in the favor, they hesitated for a moment, which was all they needed.

That hesitation allowed Bill to appear in the doorframe behind them, having hid under a Disillusionment Charm in the hallway. The sparks were not just meant to blind the Slytherins.

It was also Bill's sign to surround them. With a quick flick of his wand, Bill Disarmed all three students, their wands flying into the air. Two of them flew to Bill while the third, which had flown straight into the air, was Summoned by Harry, the wand rocketing towards Harry, who caught the wand easily.

Once the situation was defused, each of the Slytherins saw that they were finished, surrounded by the Defense Professor, the Man Who Lived and an incredibly talented sixth year student. Immediately, their shoulders slumped as they admitted their defeat.

"Move." Harry said, his wand still aimed at them.

"Where are we going?" Avery asked.

"To see the Headmistress."

As expected, Minerva was waiting for them, already seated at her desk when they arrived. Elizabeth had been instructed to go to Harry's dorm where Hermione would be waiting for her, leaving Harry and Bill to escort the three offenders into the room. They stood across from Minerva, Bill standing behind them and Harry next to them, each of them with a wand in their hand.

Professor Dumbledore had largely been a calm and genteel man but in the few moments of fury that Harry had been present for, the power that the elderly wizard had radiated had been almost overwhelming. Still, that was nothing compared to the sheer force that Harry felt coming off Minerva in these moments, a barely contained rage that Harry could already feel bubbling to the surface just at the mere sight of these students.

"The last time a student was murdered by another student within these walls was 1943." Minerva said, her voice soft and menacing. "Before that, it had been nearly two hundred years since the last time something of this nature had occurred. Do you have any defense for your actions?"

All three kept silent. While Harry knew that they believed they had been just in their actions, they were apparently wise enough not to espouse those views in front of Minerva, who might have killed them where they stood.

"You attempted to murder a student. You failed only by accident." Minerva said as Harry noticed that the quill on the desk in front of her was spinning on its own, such was the volume of the magical energy coming off of her. "If you were just one year older, you would be on your way to Azkaban as we speak."

The three Slytherins looked at each other, their faces suddenly losing all color.

"As such, your punishment within these walls falls to me."

In that moment, Harry legitimately wondered if they might have been better to spend their remaining days in Azkaban.

"Letters have already been sent to your families. They will be here in the morning to pick you up from Hogsmeade. Before you leave, a representative from the Ministry of Magic will be here to snap your wands."

"What?" Avery asked, his voice a tight squeal that reminded Harry of a tiny bird.

"You have been found guilty of one of the most heinous acts of violence in the history of this school. As such, I, along with the Board of Governors, agree that you are to be expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. According to Ministry bylaws, any person under the age of legal age of seventeen, who is found to be guilty by an appropriate party of murder or attempted murder, will have their wands snapped and their names added to a list of people who are never allowed to carry a wand again."

"An appropriate party? What does that mean?" Angela Scott asked.

"The Ministry states that it comes to the responsibility of a Ministry official to decide this in all cases, except one: students under the responsibility of the Headmaster or Headmistress of Hogwarts. In those cases, the ruling of the party in charge of the school at the time of the offense will be considered final."

As those words hit the three attackers, Harry was able to watch as they all realized just what the consequences of their attack was. While they would certainly own a wand again (they were all Purebloods after all), it would never be one specifically fitted for them. They would be able to perform only the most basic levels of magic, barely better than the Muggleborn first years that their kind so routinely hated.

"Professor Weasley, would you take these three back to their dorm so that they may pack their things? When they are done, they will return here."

"Yes, ma'am." Bill said. "Let's go."

Silently, they all filed out of the room, feeling much, in Harry's mind, like a funeral march. Once the door was closed, Harry had just one question on his mind.

"I used that same spell." Harry muttered.

"You did." Minerva said. "You are wondering why you weren't expelled."

Harry nodded gently.

"Two reasons. First, it was abundantly clear that you regretted your actions. While you were foolish to use a spell you did not know, it was clear to everyone, Snape included, that you never intended to kill Malfoy."

"Plus, if I was expelled, Dumbledore couldn't protect me."

"This is the second reason." Minerva admitted before adding, "You are not the same as those students, Harry. You did something of magnificent stupidity but your regret showed more about you than the action."

"They showed regret." Harry said.

"They regret that their actions lead to its consequences. They were given an opportunity to explain themselves. They declined. When told that they had been expelled, they did not fight back. They knew that, according to the rules, what they had done was wrong but they did not regret it. In fact, I firmly believe that their behavior will likely be celebrated by their relatives."

While Harry desperately wanted to disagree, Harry knew that she was probably right.

The next morning, Harry, as the person who had caught them, stood in the same place he had occupied the previous night. Also in the room was Minerva and Bill with the three students and their parents. The final two people in the room were a representative from the Department of Magical Education and Meredith Breckinridge.

They were there to apply Minerva's judgement.

"It is my understanding that on Sunday evening, Marcus Rookwood, Angela Scott and Peter Avery performed the Sectumsempra curse on Ethan Miles Webb with the intention to kill him for his father's role as an Auror. Is this true?"

"It is." the three students said as instructed, although all three did appear far more willing to admit it now that their parents were there.

"It is also my understanding that, as her role as Headmistress, Mineva McGonagall has found them guilty of the crime and expelled them from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, effective immediately?"

"I have." Minerva replied.

Meredith turned back to the three students. First, she approached Peter Avery.

"Your wand." she said with a hand out. Reluctantly, Peter handed over his wand which Meredith examined to ensure that it was truly his based on the descriptions provided by Ollivander's. Once she was satisfied that the wand was truly Avery's, she took the wand in both hands, and with a bit of pressure, snapped the wand in two.

A whimper came out of Peter's mouth as she handed the pieces of the wand to the representative from the Department of Magical Education. According to Minerva, it was regulation that the wands were given to them to destroy, meaning that Hagrid had somehow shirked that particular rule in order to keep his, likely as a result of Dumbledore's intervention.

Next, she moved to Angela Scott, who was already crying. Just like before, she examined the wand before snapping it, which caused Angela to burst into tears.

One final time, she took Marcus's wand and snapped it in two.

"You'll regret doing this." Marcus's father growled towards Minerva, which caused Meredith to step in front of him.

"I'll remind you that making threats in front of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is unwise. I will also remind you that your son is lucky that he didn't attempt this attack two weeks from now when he turned seventeen. If that was the case, I would have him in prison before the end of the weekend."

Marcus's father growled but backed off of his threat.

"Every year for the rest of your life, your residence will be searched to ensure that you are abiding by the terms of your punishment. Any wands found on the premise that do not belong to any member of the residence will be considered contraband and will result in an immediate term in Azkaban of no less than five years, the punishment for attempted murder. Is all of this understood?"

All of the children nodded.

"Parents, you have ten minutes to return home with your children. After that time, you will be found trespassing on school grounds and forcibly removed. That is all."

One by one, each family walked out of the room. While none of them had shown a moment of contrition for their actions, Harry still couldn't help but feel pity for them. It was clear that they had been indoctrinated at a young age to believe in Pureblood ideals and to treat everyone who believed otherwise was an enemy.

Still, he knew that he had done the right thing, even if it didn't necessarily seem like it.


	36. Thirty-Six

It was in the early days of March when Ethan Webb finally woke up from the viscous attack perpetrated against him by three fellow students. When word had broken that three students had been expelled from Hogwarts (the first students to be expelled in over fifty years) and their wands snapped, there had been a twenty-four hour period where Harry had been legitimately concerned that the castle was going to devolve into an all-out war between the Slytherins and the rest of the castle. All of the work that Minerva had done to ensure that there was a sense of comradery was being thrown away with every ambush and multi-student duel.

But just when things looked as if they were going to fall apart, Ethan woke up and a thing happened that Harry never would have suspected when he first met the young man.

He started talking to everyone about not blaming the other Slytherins for the actions of their classmates. Anytime someone within earshot of Ethan would start talking about how much they hated Slytherins, Ethan would be there to remind them that the entire House didn't attack him, just three students.

At the same time, Elizabeth had been explaining to her classmates what the reputation of Slytherin House and the actions of their classmates had done for that reputation. While there were some Slytherins that definitely still wished to support a hardline stance on blood purity, most of them, having witnessed what Hermione Granger could do, understood that there was no sense in their stance.

Finally, on the first of March, Elizabeth marched into the Great Hall and kissed Ethan in front of the entire population of the Great Hall, publicly declaring their relationship. Harry prepared for the worst but as Elizabeth walked back to the Slytherin table, he noticed that more than half the school seemed to be cheering for the two star-crossed lovers. While there were certainly those on both sides that openly rejected the idea of celebrating their relationship, the fact remained that there were Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Slytherins that were celebrating a relationship between a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin, something that would have been insane to consider even a few months earlier.

While things were certainly not perfect, relationships did seem to improve, bolstered by Elizabeth and Ethan's awareness campaign.

"Imagine if they had never gotten those detentions." Harry muttered to himself one day.

As the snow that had surrounded the castle began to melt due to the unusually warm weather of early March, the students of Hogwarts filed out of the castle, strolling down the hill to the hamlet of Hogsmeade. For most of the early part of that Saturday, Harry and Ginny had spent time with Hermione, Luna and Parvati, wandering the town and commenting on the town's constant improvement following the attack on the town just before Christmas.

They had just finished lunch at the Three Broomsticks and were walking down the main street when Ginny noticed something off in the distance, a massive poster that stood over twenty feet high on the side of the old Zonko's building. The poster's size made it easy to notice, even at a distance, but it was the subject of the poster that had obviously attracted Ginny's attention.

Standing at nearly fifteen feet tall, George Weasley towered over the town, smiling and waving at everyone who passed by before imploring them to stop by. When this giant version of George saw Ginny approaching him, he waved excitedly and beckoned them over to him.

Harry and Ginny stopped at the bottom of the poster where they could read in giant letters: **WEASLEY'S WIZARDING WHEEZES: HOGSMEADE, COMING SUMMER 1999.** As they read the sign, the massive version of George pointed at the words repeatedly before pulling out his wand and flicking it at the words so that they suddenly started flying around the poster, changing colors rapidly as they soared around the two-dimensional page.

"George is expanding!" Ginny said excitedly.

"That's so wonderful!" Hermione replied.

For a moment, Harry was overwhelmed with joy at the thought that George had remained successful after Fred's death. So successful, in fact, that he was expanding to Hogsmeade. But then Harry thought about what that would mean for his own future.

"Oh, Merlin." Harry grumbled.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Do you realize how easy it's going to be for students to get their stuff now?" Harry asked. "It's going to be a nightmare. We're going to have kids throwing up and bleeding profusely every day of the week."

"Well, their products are still banned." Hermione pointed out.

"When has that ever stopped anyone?" Parvati replied before turning to Harry. "Good luck. Glad I won't be here!"

Parvati laughed madly as Hermione and Luna looked at Harry with sympathy. He could just imagine it now, the Hospital Wing full of students bleeding out their ears, their eyes swollen shut and their feet the size of serving platters. It would be a nightmare and one that Harry was partially in charge of preventing.

As Harry thought about the horrors of his future, he was brought back into the present by an elbow to his ribs, a gentle nudge from Ginny, who was looking at him pointedly. Immediately, Harry got her meaning.

"Hey guys, we're going to head off." Harry said as Ginny wrapped her arms around his right arm. "With the amount of work we've both been doing-"

"Say no more." Hermione said, throwing her hands in the air. "We'll leave you two alone."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Parvati said as she grabbed Luna by the arm who pulled her away. Luna turned and waved wildly over her shoulder at the two of them as they disappeared around the corner. Once they were alone, Ginny pulled Harry down the street, leading them to walk down some of the side streets of the small town, places where most of the students didn't go.

It was a rare piece of quiet time between the two of them, the kind of time that Harry had come to cherish over the last few weeks. The conversation between the two of them was easy and relaxed, much like it had been for years since Ginny had figured out how to talk to Harry. They discussed the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which had been an unstoppable force of nature of much of the year, even without Harry as Seeker, largely due to the fact that the team of Chasers that Ginny had recruited were unstoppable.

In their most recent game, they had literally forced the Hufflepuff team to quit the match after four hours without either team catching the Snitch. The score at the time of the forfeit? 830-120, the largest margin of victory for a Hogwarts match that had ended before the Snitch had been caught. Needless to say, it was going to be almost impossible for them to lose the Cup at this point, which would require Ravenclaw to beat Gryffindor by two hundred and thirty points and _then_ have Hufflepuff beat Slytherin by two hundred and eighty points.

Considering the fact that Ravenclaw wasn't very good, it seemed unlikely, and with two players quitting the Hufflepuff team immediately after their demoralizing loss to Gryffindor, it seemed as if the Quidditch Cup was Gryffindor's to lose. Although Ginny was doing her best to remain focused, he could tell that she was excited about the prospect of winning the Cup, especially as team captain. There were already rumors that there had been scouts from the Quidditch League present at their last match and if Ginny's performance (where she had single-handedly outscored Hufflepuff on her own) had any sort of impact, Harry was expecting to see even more scouts at their final match of the year.

Eventually, the conversation turned away from Quidditch as they wandered towards the outskirts of town. Ginny babbled on about some of her extended family, who apparently had been very interested in to hear about her renewed relationship with Harry, having heard about it from a rather excited letter from Molly. Harry thought about that for a moment. He didn't have anyone else to tell, really. Everyone that needed to know was at Hogwarts or related to Ginny. The only family he had left was the Dursleys and they certainly didn't care.

Harry must have made some sort of face when he thought about the Dursleys because Ginny stopped walking.

"What is it?" she asked, clearly concerned.

"Nothing." Harry said. "I was just thinking that the only people I could really tell about our relationship is the Dursleys."

"Well, you and I both know that they won't care about that."

"Or anything related to me." Harry said, which caused a sour look to cross Ginny's face. "What?"

Ginny hesitated, clearly not wanting to ruin a good day for them. "I just...I can't get over what the Dursleys did to you. They took this brave, caring, wonderful boy and they locked him in a **closet.** "

"It's strange." said Harry. "It feels like that was another life."

"But it wasn't." Ginny fired back. "That's what makes it so incredible. They way they treated you, you should be a monster. But you aren't. Merlin, I hate those Muggles."

"Not a great thing for someone to potentially overhear." Harry chuckled.

"You know what I mean." Ginny said pointedly. "I don't hate all Muggles, just those."

"Listen, I understand." Harry replied. "Although, I have to admit, now that we've been talking about them, I am kind of curious how they're doing."

"Why?"

"I dunno." Harry admitted. "Morbid curiosity? The last I saw them, they were hightailing it away from Privet Drive. I wonder if they ever came back."

Suddenly, Ginny had a devilish look in her eye as she scanned back and forth down the street.

"Ginny?" Harry said nervously. "Ginny, what are you thinking?"

"This."

Ginny reached out and grabbed Harry. Before he knew what was happening, Harry was being sucked from his place in Hogsmeade, landing just across the street from 4 Privet Drive. Immediately, Harry waved his wand and cast matching Disillusionment Charms on them, vanishing them from view.

"What the hell are you doing, Ginny?" Harry said. "We're not supposed to leave school."

"We'll be back before anyone notices we're gone." Ginny replied, waving off Harry's concern. "Plus, it's not like you or I need the Auror's protection anymore. Hell, we're better than most of them are anyway."

"Yeah but what happens when thirty Death Eaters show up?" Harry asked. "We're good but we aren't that good."

"If that happens, we run." Ginny replied firmly. "Do you honestly think they're watching this place?"

"They could be." Harry reminded her. "They know I have family here."

"But you hate them."

"I don't hate them." Harry replied.

"You don't?" Ginny said. "Because you should."

"I don't hate them. But I don't know what I feel towards them."

"Well, let's find out."

Ginny turned and marched across the street, cancelling the Disillusionment Charm on her so that she suddenly appeared in the middle of the street. Harry did the same and followed her to the front door. There was a look in Ginny's eyes that made Harry uncomfortable for some reason.

4 Privet Drive looked the same as it had always looked. Every garden in the front of the house was perfect with each clump of dirt exactly where it belonged. The grass, cut every other day by Petunia, was the exact two inches in length that Uncle Vernon preferred. Harry looked at the windows, which looked like they had been cleaned within the last hour, perfectly clear with no streaks in sight.

Ginny knocked on the door loudly. Considering it was the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, Harry knew exactly what the Dursleys would be doing. Petunia would be in the middle of cooking dinner while Vernon pretended to read the paper while watching football on the tele. Dudley was the wildcard. He could have been out with his friends. If not, he was likely playing video games in his room.

Harry stood just behind Ginny, his heart pounding as he heard movement behind the door. Suddenly, Harry felt as if this was an incredibly terrible idea, a sentiment he echoed to Ginny, who rejected that notion.

"We're just visiting." Ginny said, a hard look in her eyes.

Just at that moment, the door flew open with Aunt Petunia standing on the other side of the doorframe. All three of them stood in silence, Harry and Petunia staring at each other with Ginny smirking wildly between them. When it became clear that neither Harry or Petunia could speak, Ginny stepped up.

"Petunia, invite us inside would you?"

Ginny's words seemed to snap Petunia out of her trance.

"Excuse me?" Petunia said, her voice squeaking out like a mouse that had just been trampled on.

"Invite us in." Ginny said, her words clearly a demand this time.

Petunia froze for a moment before she recognized the tone in Ginny's voice.

"Oh...of course, of course." Petunia said, sweat running down her face. "Come in."

Petunia stepped aside, allowing Harry and Ginny to step into his former home.

 _It's where I lived,_ Harry thought to himself, _it was never my home._ They walked through the foyer and into the main living room, the same one where Dumbledore had chided his aunt and uncle just three years earlier. Vernon was seated in his chair as expected. However, he was sleeping, his snores echoing loudly through the house as his mustache fluttered up and down like a leaf in the wind.

"Vernon?" Petunia whispered, her eyes never leaving Harry. "Vernon?"

Vernon slowly came back to life, smacking his lips together as he woke up.

"Petunia?" Vernon asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Is it time for dinner?"

"No." Petunia said, her eyes flicking back to Harry and Ginny. "We have guests."

If Harry hadn't been so nervous to see his relatives once more, he might have found the following scene funny. Vernon, his eyes following Petunia's, looked at Harry, taking a moment to comprehend what he was really seeing. As understanding crossed his features, his skin turned a shade of purple that Harry had never seen before. If Harry hadn't known any better, he would have thought that Vernon was trying to turn himself into a grape.

For a moment, Vernon simply stared at Harry, rage simmering just below the surface. Finally, Vernon, his feet still propped into the air by the recliner, tried to get up out of the chair. Unfortunately, he forgot to put the footrest back down and so when he went to stand, he tripped over the footrest and tumbled head over heels, his feet crashing through the front of the tele, shattering it. As he struggled to get his walrus-like form off the floor, he reached back next to his chair, grabbing something that Harry couldn't see.

Thankfully, Ginny had. When Vernon stood, a small revolver in his hand which he leveled at Harry, Ginny flicked her wand at the gun, turning it to dust in Vernon's hand. Immediately, Vernon lowered his shoulder as if he was going to charge Harry. Instead, Ginny stepped in his way, her wand just inches away from the spot directly between Vernon's eyes.

"Sit down, Vernon." Ginny said. He had never heard her sound more threatening to anyone in his entire life. While Vernon clearly did not want to listen to the redhead, he also understood just what the wand in her hand could do. So, his eyes never leaving Ginny, he sat back down in his chair, bringing the footrest back down so that he could have his feet flat on the floor. It was clear that he was preparing himself to run, which Harry thought might have been the stupidest idea he had ever considered.

Just as Vernon sat, there was a brief flick of motion to their left.

"Harry?"

Harry turned to see his cousin, now even slimmer than the last time that Harry had seen him, standing in the kitchen, a rather confused look on his face.

"Hi, Dudley."

"What are you doing here?"

"You know that's a good question." Harry said pointedly in Ginny's direction. "What are we doing here, Ginny?"

"We're going to have a talk." Ginny said calmly as she stowed her wand. "If everyone would please have a seat."

"We don't have to do a word you say." Vernon growled. "You wouldn't dare use... _you know what_ on me."

"I would absolutely use magic on you." Ginny countered. "In fact, if Harry wasn't here, I probably would have cursed all three of you. Now, **sit.** "

Immediately, Dudley and Petunia obeyed Ginny's command, taking a seat on the couch opposite Harry and Ginny with Vernon in his chair between them. Once they were all seated, all eyes fell on Ginny.

"Thank you." Ginny said with a feigned kindness. "Now, I imagine you're wondering what we're doing here."

"I'm wondering what we're doing here." Harry muttered as Vernon added, "You're damn right I am."

"Well, I'm here to tell you what your nephew has been up to since he last left your home."

"And why would we care about that?" Vernon barked, his skin an ugly mix of red and purple, his eyes bulging so intensely that Harry worried they would pop out of their sockets.

Ginny breathed deeply through her nostrils, clearly trying not to outright curse Vernon. Instead, she withdrew her wand once more and simply set it on her lap, a tacit threat that Vernon understood instantly.

"You should care, Vernon, because without your nephew, we would likely all be dead." Ginny said firmly. "Harry spent the year after he left your house on a quest to destroy Lord Voldemort. During that time, he broke into the Ministry of Magic and the wizard's bank, only two of the most secure places in the world. He fought dark wizards and destroyed a series of relics that were keeping Lord Voldemort alive."

Ginny stood and began to pace around the room, her voice growing more strained as she spoke.

"Lord Voldemort was the most dangerous threat that we had ever faced and Harry defeated him."

"He's dead?" Petunia suddenly asked. "The one who-"

"The one who killed my mother and father? Yes." Harry replied coldly. "Yes, he's dead."

Petunia's reaction was strange. It almost looked as if she were relieved as she heard this news, sighing deeply and relaxing into her chair.

"Did you kill him?" Dudley asked.

"In a way." Harry said, refusing to give them more than that.

"What's more important was that Harry has lost more than anyone else in this war. He lost his mother and father, his godfather and his mentor, and several other friends in the final battle. But he still fought on. In the end, he sacrificed himself so that everyone else could live."

"Sacrificed himself?" Vernon scoffed. "If you sacrificed yourself, how are you here?"

"Magic." Harry said simply, admittedly enjoying the effect that word had on Vernon, who shuddered violently each time he heard it.

"He did all of this, despite the fact that he grew up with monsters like you." Ginny said, growling with fury towards Petunia and Vernon. "Do you understand how rare someone like Harry is? Harry, whose whole life was one tragedy after another, didn't become a tyrant or a monster. He overthrew the tyrant. He killed the monster. He has accomplished more in his seventeen years of life than you could ever dream and he did it _despite_ you."

It was in this moment that Harry realized that they might have been there for Ginny's sake as much as his own. This was clearly something that she had been grappling with for some time. Ginny, of course, had only known happiness and love as a child. If Harry was the most important person in her life who she wasn't related to, then the fact that Vernon and Petunia had neglected and abused Harry for years would have weighed heavily on her. Harry's mention of his aunt and uncle had just given her the opportunity that she had been looking for.

"How could you?" Ginny asked, her words aimed directly at Petunia. "He was your sister's son. How could you have been so jealous of her abilities that you would choose to torture her son for ten years?"

"Jealous?" Petunia replied nervously. "I was not jea-"

"I know that you sent letters to Hogwarts." Harry said suddenly. "I know that you begged Dumbledore to allow you to come to school."

Those words had an interesting effect on each of the Dursleys. While Dudley appeared to be quite shocked by this news, Vernon looked apoplectic, as if he was ready to murder Petunia on the spot for even considering the idea of wanting something _abnormal._ But it was Petunia's response that Harry noticed most of all, a single tear streaming down her face as she was plunged back into the days before her dreams of becoming a witch like her sister had been squashed.

"How do you know that?" Petunia choked out.

"Severus Snape." Harry said, letting the name speak for him. The look of surprise on her face was truly a sight to behold, all of her features stretched the very edge of credulity.

"How do you know him?"

"He was a professor at my school and he worked to help destroy Voldemort." Harry replied, giving her the most basic version of the convoluted tale. "He showed me a series of his memories, memories of his youth. Memories with you in them."

"You saw?" Petunia sputtered. "You saw...me?"

Harry nodded, causing Petunia to sink back into the couch, sobbing.

"You allowed the jealousy you felt for your sister to poison your mind." Ginny said. "And you took that out on a child."

When Petunia's sobs intensified, Vernon turned to Harry, murder in his eyes once more.

"We should have given you away when we had the chance!" Vernon roared suddenly, standing from his chair. "You've been nothing but trouble since the day you arrived."

Ginny whipped her wand towards Vernon, which threw him back to his chair.

"Stand up again and I will tie you to the chair." Ginny threatened. "Now, Harry didn't want to come here. I did. I wanted you to know that your nephew saved the world _despite_ the horrors that you put him through. You didn't help him, you certainly didn't make him more determined to defeat the Dark Lord. You just proved to him that there are some people in the world who aren't worth saving."

Ginny paused, staring boldly at Vernon, as if she were daring him to attempt anything. When she saw that Vernon had been appropriately cowed, she glared at Petunia as she walked out of the room, leaving Harry alone with his relatives. Harry sat there for a moment, waiting for Petunia to say anything. When he realized, however, that she wasn't going to say anything, he stood.

"I am glad that the Order's protection worked. Even after everything you did to me, I never wanted you to die because of me." Harry said before he turned to walk out of the room. However, before he could do that, Vernon stood from his chair, his wide frame blocking Harry's exit, and for just the briefest moments, Harry hoped that he was going to say that he had learned his lesson and realized just how terrible he had been to Harry. But, Harry knew that it was too good to be true when he saw the hatred burning in his eyes.

"Get out of my house." Vernon whispered, his entire body shaking with anger. "If I ever see you again, I'll kill you and then you can join your filthy parents where you belong."

Harry felt something, something that he had buried for years, snap deep inside of him. While Harry had done a good job of controlling himself so far, considering he had been brought to the Dursleys unexpectedly, this comment pushed him over the edge. But rather than draw his wand, Harry engaged in a more primal form of combat.

He balled his hand into a fist, drew it back and struck Vernon in the jaw. Vernon, caught off guard by Harry's assault, flopped backwards over the chair behind him, ending up once more upside down on the other side of the chair. As Harry, a rare rage coming over him, grabbed the recliner between them, nearly tossing it out of the way, he felt a pair of large arms come from around him as Petunia tried to step in front of him.

"You don't want to do that." Harry heard Dudley whisper into his ear. "I know that you're angry but you don't want to do that."

But the fire that Harry had kept buried, the resentment and anger he had kept hidden for years, burned brighter, causing Harry's wand to go off even though it was in his pocket, red sparks firing out of his pocket and bouncing all over the room. Blinded, Dudley let go of Harry, who stepped forward after drawing his wand.

When the others in the room regained their sight, they saw Harry, wand aimed directly at Vernon's forehead, the chair Vernon had been sitting in thrown (likely by Harry's wand) at least thirty feet across the room. Harry, looking down his wand at Vernon, knew that Dudley was right. He knew that he didn't _want_ to kill anyone, even someone as despicable and pathetic as Vernon Dursley.

"I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry turned to see Dudley standing there, tears in his eyes. He could only imagine what Dudley saw: his cousin moments away from murdering his father. At least, that's what Harry assumed it looked like.

"I'm sorry." he repeated. "I know that Mum and Dad will never say it. But I'm sorry that we treated you the way we did. You were a kid and your Mum and Dad had been murdered and we treated you like you were a monster."

Harry didn't know what to say. So he said nothing.

"You're pretty powerful among your people, aren't you?"

"Yes." Harry said.

"If you had asked your friends to stop protecting us, would they?"

"It's certainly possible."

"But you never asked. You never asked them to stop protecting us."

"No, I didn't." Harry said as he stowed his wand. "They're still protecting you to this day as far as I know and they'll continue to do so as long as I don't ever see him again."

Harry looked back where Vernon had remained on the floor, a murderous look on his face.

"You don't deserve my protection but as long as you live with Petunia and Dudley, you'll be under my protection." Harry said. "If you ever leave them, I will order them not to protect you."

"I don't need your protection, boy."

"There are people that know you are my uncle. People that hate me and want me dead." Harry countered. "They'll come after you, thinking that since you are my uncle, I'll care if they kill you. But I won't. You are likely the only person on the entire planet whose death would actually make me happy."

Harry turned away from Vernon, looking back at the other two in the room.

"If you need to contact me, don't."

Harry gave Vernon one last look, the last time he would ever see his uncle, and then walked out of the room and then out of the front door, where Ginny was waiting for him.

"Why did we do this?" Harry asked.

"Because you needed the closure and because I wanted them to know that you had survived. I wanted them to know that you had made it through the war, despite what they did to you." Ginny replied. "They aren't your family, Harry. You might be related but they were never your family. The fact that your uncle treated you the way he did just now and your aunt still stands next to him proves that."

Speaking of his aunt, Harry and Ginny were getting ready to return to Hogsmeade when Petunia came out the door, clearly looking for Harry. Harry looked at Ginny meaningfully. Quickly, she got his meaning and Apparated back to Hogsmeade, leaving Harry alone with his aunt, who was approaching quickly.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

Petunia stopped several feet short of Harry. She looked at him, her eyes locking with his. He knew that she recognized the shade of green in his eyes and knew that it reminded her of her sister.

"You were right." Petunia said softly.

"About what?" said Harry.

"I was jealous of Lily. She was better than I was in every way. She was smarter, more attractive, more sociable. And then, of course, she developed magic."

Tears streamed down Petunia's face as she spoke. It was clear to Harry that she had avoided talking about these times with Lily, the good times, for years, likely to avoid incurring Vernon's wrath.

"I knew nothing about the magical world and yet I knew that she was different, better. Magic came as easy as breathing to her. Then, she found someone so unlike her and they were so happy and I hated her for that. She had everything that I ever wanted and it was so goddamn easy for her. When I saw you on the front step, the morning that _he_ dropped you off here, I could only see all of the things about my sister that I had wanted to have but never could. I hated you for it, despite the fact that you were a baby. I hated that my stupid sister had gotten herself killed and that I had been saddled with a second infant. I hated that you looked exactly like her husband and that you had her eyes.

Petunia's eyes, which had long avoided Harry's, finally rose to meet his.

"I'm sorry. I know that I don't deserve your forgiveness and that it's too late to fix what I've done. But I am sorry."

Harry was frozen in place, unable to do anything for a moment, as he looked at this aunt, who had just come out of her house to apologize to Harry. Based on the look on her face, she was clearly expecting Harry, who she knew was a good person, to forgive her.

Instead, Harry laughed.

"You really are something." Harry said. "You know my mother had to deal with the fact that she lived in a different world, a world away from her family. She had to deal with the fact that her only sister was a jealous pig and that she lived in the midst of a civil war among her people. You think she had everything? In our world, people born to Muggle parents are treated like second class citizens. The only people who should have loved her unconditionally were her parents and her sister and she couldn't even rely on you for that."

"She wasn't even given a chance to live a real life. She graduated from school and was instantly thrust into a war. Then, she gave birth to the person prophesied to kill the darkest wizard of their age, forcing them to go into hiding. You know what happened next, right? Oh, that's right, she was murdered."

Harry stepped towards Petunia so that he was only inches away from her. He didn't want to shout but he had more to say.

"You can take your apology and shove it." Harry growled. "You are pathetic. Dudley treated me like garbage for years but he has you and that walrus for parents so no one should have expected him to turn out well. Vernon was a Muggle and a fucking despicable human being to begin with so, again, if he didn't treat his nephew, the son of a witch and a wizard well, who could blame him? But you? You are my aunt by blood. You are my mother's sister. When given the choice to show an orphan a loving home or to torture him for the first decade of his life, you chose the latter."

Petunia tried to defend herself. "It was Vernon." she sputtered.

"It was _you._ I was your nephew. You had a choice to make and you made it. You chose that cow and in turn, you doomed me to ten years of living in a closet! My mother still loved you on the day she died. But you took her memory and you spat on it. What makes you think that I would ever forgive you for something like that? We are the product of our choices. Someone once told me that there would be a time when we had to choose between what was right and what was easy. On the day that you found me on your doorstep, you chose easy."

"Know that my mother is looking down you and all she sees is disappointment."

Harry turned away from his Aunt Petunia and Number Four Privet Drive for the last time, leaving his aunt sobbing on the pavement of the sidewalk, contemplating what she had done.


	37. Thirty-Seven

The month of March drifted by quickly with Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts students spending day after day in the Library or their Common Rooms, studying until well after midnight. Harry especially was working overtime. On the last Monday of March, Minerva had approached Harry, telling him that she had heard back from the Ministry. They had approved Harry's request to take his NEWTs early and would also be approving his educational waiver should he pass.

The tests would be set for the middle of April, just a little under three weeks away. At the same time, Harry was already taking on more duties within the castle. As the year went on, Bill was having Harry work with his students more. In fact, the first year classes were already largely being taught by Harry. While Bill was the one still coming up with the lesson plans, Harry was the person in the front of the room executing them. After each class, he would spend the next half hour with Bill, going over the things that Harry had done well and the areas in which he could improve.

In addition to these duties, Harry and Hermione had even more work as Head Boy and Girl due to a recent influx in Death Eater attacks around the country. Just the day after Harry and Ginny had snuck away to Little Whinging, an Auror and his family were murdered by a group of Death Eaters. The most disconcerting piece of information related to the attack was that no one recognized any of the Death Eaters, implying that Dolohov had been so successful in his recruitment efforts that he was now leading entire teams of Death Eaters who hadn't been originally part of Voldemort's army.

That had been two weeks ago and in that time, three more attacks had been perpetrated all across Britain, all of them following that same pattern of information. Each of the targets had been high value Ministry officials, usually within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was clear that they were trying to weaken the Ministry by creating chaos among its members, forcing them to replace several officials who had been involved in the search for the Death Eaters themselves.

Because of this, it was widely suspected that another major attack like the one at Trafalgar Square was coming. Harry still suspected that they would eventually attack the school but according to all of the information that Kingsley had received from the Aurors over the last few months, it was his suspicion that the Ministry would be attacked first. They would attack the Ministry, hoping to cripple its ability to respond to a crisis and then they would make their move to attack the castle.

The only problem with this line of thinking was that there was no information, whether provided by captured Death Eaters or spies in Knockturn Alley, when the Death Eaters planned on perpetrating such an attack. This meant that the Ministry was on high alert at all times and Hogwarts had done the same, almost doubling the amount of people patrolling the castle at night. Now, each Prefect had been given one overnight patrol each week in addition to their regularly scheduled patrols. The Aurors that had been assigned to Hogwarts had been brought into the castle, assisting the school staff ensure the safety of their students.

It made for a cramped and chaotic environment but Minerva believed, and Harry agreed, that the Aurors would help the students feel safer, even if it made things feel strange. Often, the feeling of safety is just as helpful as actual safety.

As a part of the new security measures enacted over the last few weeks, all Hogsmeade visits had been cancelled and while Quidditch matches were still being held, only the students belonging to the two Houses who were playing were able to attend. Finally, Harry's weekend privileges, which he had barely been using anyway, had been revoked, meaning that the only escape Harry had from the castle was a single day that the Ministry had requested his presence at the very end of the month of March.

On that day, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy would be testifying against their father. Robert Robinson had asked for Harry to be present on the chance that someone called into question that validity of any of their testimony or the content of their character. While Harry wasn't certain that he was the best person to talk about the character of a Malfoy in most cases, Harry understood that since he had been the one to strike the deal with Narcissa and Draco, he should be present to explain the terms of the deal should it come up.

The chamber of the Wizengamot looked exactly the same as the day that Harry had testified except that there were two chairs in the middle of the room rather than one. Narcissa and Draco looked well kept and were dressed in the typical Malfoy fashion, all black. Both looked nervous, their eyes darting around the room as they scanned for threats. Harry couldn't blame them. Other than Harry's personal testament, their testimony would likely be the largest nail in the coffin for the Death Eaters. While Lucius wasn't present, Dawlish had agreed to allow them to testify against the Malfoy patriarch on the same day that they testified against the others so that when Lucius was captured, they could follow through the terms of their deal and leave the country immediately.

While the mood on the day of Harry's testimony had been relatively light hearted, the same could not be said of the courtroom on this day. Rather than open conversation, people appeared to be whispering to their neighbors, their eyes bouncing between their conversation partner and the Malfoys. It was clear that, unlike Harry who they viewed as a friend to their cause, the bulk of the Wizengamot still believed Narcissa and Draco to be their enemy, a sentiment that Harry understood entirely. If Narcissa or Draco screwed this up today, Harry's personal capital within the Ministry of Magic would certainly wane considering he was the one who orchestrated their testimony and their rewards for doing so. He could only hope that they both stuck to the deal they had arranged.

Once the entirety of the court had filed in, Dawlish, much as he had on the day of Harry's testimony, welcomed the court and then opened the floor for motions. A few minor motions passed quickly before Dawlish turned the room over to Robinson, who read the Malfoys their rights and then began the process of the trial. Each of the captured Death Eaters was brought up in order and from the beginning, Narcissa, and occasionally Draco, started spilling their family secrets, betraying everything their family had stood for so that they could remain safe.

While the Malfoys spoke, Harry couldn't help but find himself gravitated to the Death Eaters who sat watching, their hands bound in front of them. With each revelation, each secret unveiled, a look of defeat started to cross on each of their faces as they realized that they would in fact be spending the rest of their lives in jail. Why they hadn't realized that until now, Harry was uncertain but there was no doubt that the rage that they had felt with Narcissa had started talked had now transformed into a feeling of dread, a knowing, sinking sensation of defeat.

Finally, after Narcissa finished spending nearly an hour detailing the horrors that Corban Yaxley had committed over the years, Robinson asked about her husband.

"Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater."

"Yes." Narcissa said, her voice trembling slightly as she rubbed her hands together nervously.

"When did Lucius Malfoy first become a Death Eater?"

"Within a month of his graduation from Hogwarts."

"And Malfoy operated most of his business over the next twenty years at the direction of Lord Voldemort himself?"

"Yes." Narcissa said. "Lucius was well placed to influence the Minister of Magic. While he was less successful with Millicent Bagnold, Lucius was able to influence Cornelius Fudge in such a way that Lucius might as well have been the Minister himself."

"How did he do this?"

"Largely, he gave Fudge what he wanted. Lucius threw thousands of Galleons at the Ministry of Magic each year, often offsetting the balance of the Ministry's budget on his own. In return, Fudge became Lucius's political slave. If Lucius needed anything, Fudge was happy to oblige, knowing that Lucius was largely responsible for his position."

"And he did all of this to perpetrate Voldemort's reign?"

"He did this because it's what Malfoys do." Narcissa countered. "Lucius understood the power that his name and his money brought him. But he wanted more and that is why he threw his name in with The Dark Lord. Repeatedly, I told him that the Dark Lord would only lead to his ruination but he refused to listen to me."

"You are a Pureblood and a Black. Why did you not believe in Lord Voldemort?"

"Because Voldemort wasn't a Pureblood." Narcissa replied. "If he had been, then I might have even joined myself. But I knew that he only used the Purebloods for his own gain, he used us to take the power that we had enjoyed for years, blinding us with his rhetoric and his propaganda against Muggles and Muggleborn."

Harry had always know that Narcissa Malfoy was a sharp woman. It was clear that nothing slipped past her without her knowledge. As a result, it was interesting to hear her perspective on Lord Voldemort. Unlike her husband, who viewed Riddle was a method of climbing to the top, Narcissa knew better. She knew that Riddle would only use them like he used everyone else. To him, they were nothing more than a pedestal to stand on.

Still, Narcissa had done nothing and said nothing and it was clear that her Pureblood bias was just as rampant as her husband's, if not more.

"I understand." Robinson said, although Harry knew that he couldn't. Unless you had met Riddle and personally spoken to him, you truly couldn't understand just how he worked and how he viewed the world around him.

Narcissa spent the next nearly two hours talking more about Lucius. She told the Wizengamot how Lucius had been the one that had allowed the Death Eaters into the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries to trap Harry. She relayed the details of their pseudo-imprisonment at Malfoy Manor after Lucius had been broken out of Azkaban. She talked about how Lucius would ramble on for hours, begging Bellatrix to allow him to prove his worth once more, to which Bellatrix would only laugh.

Even the story of how Harry, Ron and Hermione ended up at Malfoy Manor became part of her testimony. In the end, Harry couldn't count the number of crimes that she had admitted to as part of her testimony but it paled in comparison to the horrors that Lucius Malfoy had committed over the years. In a nearly thirty year career, there was no question that no person in the country had been responsible for more pain and misery than Lucius Malfoy.

When Robinson was finished, Ms. White, still clad in the same white business suit that she had worn on the day of Harry's testimony, stepped forward.

"Why should we listen to a word you say?"

Robinson stood, motioning towards Dawlish. Harry knew that he was about to be called on to support Narcissa's testimony. However, before Dawlish or Robinson could do anything, Narcissa spoke up.

"Do you have a husband, Ms. White?"

"I do not."

"Do you have any children?"

"No." Ms. White said.

"So you have no idea what it must be like to have the kind of responsibilities that I had to my husband and my son. I did not love my husband when I married him. Our union was a symbolic connection between the two most powerful Pureblood families to ever exist. But over time, I came to care for Lucius, even if he was a vile man. He was the father of my son and for that, I can never thank him enough. But I was given a choice, Ms. White, by the Ministry of Magic. When given the choice between being loyal to my husband or my son, there is no question. I would rather see my husband brought before the Dementors than let my son spend a day in Azkaban for the crimes of his father."

"But your son has committed crimes, Mrs. Malfoy, many of them." Ms. White said. "Why should we trust what either of you have to say when everyone in this room knows that the only reason you are testifying against your husband is to save your skin?"

Robinson turned and looked back several rows to where Harry sat and nodded to Harry, who nodded in return. Robinson stood in his place at the railing.

"We have someone willing to attest to the validity of the Malfoy's responses and their reasonings for doing so."

"Really?" Ms. White scoffed. "And who would that be?"

"Me."

Harry stood as the room suddenly filled with whispers. Everyone knew about the rivalry between Harry and Draco. It must have been a great shock to many gathered there that Harry would speak in favor of the Malfoys.

"Excuse me?" Ms. White said as Harry walked down the stairs, ending at the rail next to Robinson.

"I am willing to corroborate the testimony of Narcissa and Draco Malfoy." Harry said. "On two separate occasions, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy were given the opportunity to turn me over to the Dark Lord. On both instances, they refused."

"When were these _instances?"_

"That information is classified." Dawlish interrupted from his perch. "Please continue, Mr. Potter."

"In either case, there is no doubt that Narcissa and Draco have committed many crimes. However, as part of a deal with myself and the Ministry of Magic, they have agreed to leave the country and donate half the remaining Malfoy fortune to Hogwarts in return for their testimony. They have also agreed to vacate the seats they control on the Wizengamot."

"And what do you get out of that deal, Mrs. Malfoy?" Ms. White snapped.

"I get to leave this place and find a safe place for my son away from the people who would kill us for having testified against their families, regardless of whether we spoke the truth."

At that moment, Harry could see that Ms. White knew that she had lost this case. While Harry knew little of Ms. White, he knew that she was a credible defense advocate, usually appointed by the Ministry to those who had no money or could not find an advocate. Ms. White prided herself on her ability to get her clients out of most of their charges, a feat that she had finally realized would not be happening in this case.

All of her clients were going to jail and they were going to spend the rest of their lives there.

The rest of the testimony took another five minutes before Ms. White turned the proceedings back over to Dawlish, who immediately adjourned the body for the day. Harry stepped around the railing and approached Narcissa and Draco. Narcissa was sitting in her chair, her head in her hands, shaking from the sobs that she had clearly been holding back. Draco, not a particularly loving or affectionate person, simply stood behind her, a hand on her back.

"Thank you." Harry said simply to the two of them. "When Lucius is captured, he'll get what he deserves."

"What about what we deserve?" Draco asked. "We were dragged in front of all of these people and forced to tell them all that we're criminals. In return we get what?"

Harry had to resist the urge to punch Draco in the mouth.

"You get a chance to live a life away from all this. You'll be able to create a new identity and live free of the burdens of your family name."

"I am proud of my family name." Draco growled.

"That's great, Malfoy." Harry replied. "But in thirty years, it's still going to be the name of a criminal. Don't let your father weigh you down. Get free of him and make a life for yourself."

"Don't lecture me on my family, Potter." Malfoy drawled. "You don't have one."

For a moment, Harry considered asking to have Draco added to the list of accused. But he knew that Malfoy was just as hurt as his mother, even if he wasn't showing it. So Harry didn't do anything. He simply sighed and walked past them, leaving them with their security detail to consider exactly what the value of a family was.

When Harry returned to Hogwarts, he immediately found Ginny and Hermione in the same spots that he had left them, both of them studying profusely in Harry and Hermione's Common Area. However, both looked significantly worse for the wear. Hermione's hair had partially come out of its ponytail, billowing wildly in several directions. Ginny, on the other hand, had removed both her sweater and her t-shirt, leaving her in a white tank top as she poured over several textbooks and more rolls of parchment than Harry's desk could handle at one time.

Needless to say, they both needed a break. After finally pulling the pair of them away from their work, all three wandered down to the Great Hall for dinner, Harry doing his best to encourage a leisurely pace. Still, Harry could see how stressed both of them were about their studies. Harry felt the same, especially considering that he would be taking his NEWTs more than six weeks before they would.

Thankfully, Harry had almost half as many classes to take as either of them, which negated some of that extra pressure.

But by the time the three of them reached the Great Hall, it seemed that both Hermione and Ginny had relaxed just enough to sit and enjoy dinner, especially once Ginny saw that bread pudding was on the desert menu for the evening. Ginny took a seat and began piling potatoes onto her plate. At the same time, Parvati sat down opposite Harry, a curious look on her face.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"Is it true that you were at the trial today?" Parvati asked, surprising Harry. While Parvati had certainly matured in recent months, she had never shown a particular interest in politics or the trail of the Death Eaters.

"I was." Harry replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I heard that Draco Malfoy looked terrible." Parvati said. "The evening edition of one of my gossip magazines reported that he walked in wearing an old Muggle suit. Is that true?"

This line of questioning did seem more aligned with Parvati's usual interests.

"He looked fine, or as fine as a Malfoy can look." Harry said. "I think he was wearing some kind of black suit but it looked fine."

"Just fine?" Parvati asked. "When has Draco Malfoy ever looked _just fine?"_

"I can't be certain. I never really spent my time appreciating what Malfoy looked like." Harry replied.

"You were missing out. He may have been a Death Eater but he was an attractive one at least."

"Yes. He was an attractive Death Eater who let Fenrir Greyback into the castle." Harry said coldly. Parvati's reaction was instantaneous, her eyes opening wide with shock as she realized what she had just said.

"Oh." Parvati whispered. "I didn't mean...I forgot that he-"

"You don't have to apologize to me." Harry said. "Sure, Malfoy might be working for us now but that's only to save his hide. It doesn't mean that we should forget that he was the one responsible for letting Death Eaters into the castle."

"Yeah." Parvati said, her mind suddenly elsewhere. Harry was certain that her thoughts had wandered to Lavender. While Lavender had made it through that particular night, she had been killed by Greyback only eleven months later mere few meters from where they sat now. Harry knew that Parvati hadn't been trying to trivialize Malfoy's actions by commenting on his appearance. Harry himself had been guilty of thinking that Malfoy had turned over a new leaf after the war.

But his interaction with his archrival earlier in the day had proven to Harry that Draco Malfoy was still the same lost, arrogant boy that he had first met at Madam Malkin's, albeit one who had been encouraged even more fervently over the last few years to become as ardant a supporter of Purebloods and the Dark Arts as possible. In the end, Malfoy would always be exactly what he was: someone who cared for no one other than himself and his family and would do everything he could to advance his own position and protect his own interests. Harry wanted to be wrong but he knew that he didn't dare to hope for it.

While Parvati sat lost in her thoughts, Harry noticed that Ginny and Hermione had returned to talking about their studies. Harry had to admit that he was surprised Ginny was taking her NEWTs so seriously. While she had always been an excellent student, her views on education tended to skew closer to those of her twin brothers than of someone like Percy. This was especially the case when you factored in her desire to play Quidditch professionally after she graduated from Hogwarts. At that point, they didn't care whether you had received ten NEWTs or none.

They cared about whether you could put the Quaffle in the goal, something that Ginny had been historically good at over the year. If she scored four more goals in their last match of the year, she would set the single season scoring record for Gryffindor, a record that had lasted for more than two centuries.

As dinner stretched on, Harry found himself looking around the room, taking in the sights and sounds of the castle. In just over a month, assuming his tests went well, Harry would no longer be a student at Hogwarts, but an official professor. For years, Hogwarts had been his home, his sanctuary. Now, he would be able to help others find the same kind of belonging that Harry had discovered within the walls of the castle.

Even with every day bringing him closer to that reality, Harry had a hard time believing that he would actually become a professor at Hogwarts. All year, Harry had expected something to get in the way. Of course, that had been the reality of his life. Whenever something good seemed to happen, something unforeseen prevented it from staying.

Harry had discovered that Sirius was his godfather. Then, Pettigrew escaped, condemning Sirius to a life on the run until his own death. Harry had dated Cho until Cedric's death came between them and his relationship with Ginny had originally been cut short by Dumbledore's death and Harry's imminent departure from school.

Even now, Harry expected something to come between Harry and Ginny, not to mention his incoming tenure at Hogwarts. But with each passing day, and no life altering events to get in his way, Harry had come to accept that he just might get what he wanted: a life with Ginny and a job at his favorite place in the world.

But just as Harry thought that the world might finally be aligning itself with his own interests, Harry noticed something out of the corner of his eye, a brick on the wall that separated the Great Hall from the Entrance Hall falling to the floor. As Harry turned to look at the wall directly, another brick fell, crashing onto the end of the Gryffindor table, just a few yards from where Harry, Ginny and Hermione sat.

Then, like a wave rushing to the shore, the entire wall, starting from the top and working its way down, cascaded down from the ceilings, bricks flying in a tidal wave towards them. Standing, Harry drew his wand and aimed it at the wave as the people around him sprinted towards the end of the hall.

" _Impedimenta!"_

The wave of bricks started to slowed as it approached where the students had sat. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop them completely and the few students that had remained close to where Harry stood sprinted away from the piles of rock and dust flying at them when they saw Harry do the same.

As he ran, a large brick hit him in the shoulder, nearly knocking him over as he desperately ran, hoping that he could outrun the rolling waves of rubble that were coming towards him. Another piece of rock hit him in the hand and he could feel the bones in his hand break as he cried out in pain.

Thankfully, just as another brick flew past his head, the roaring sound of the rocks lessened to a gentle purr before going silent. Turning around, Harry saw that the pile of rocks and brick had fallen over more than half of the Great Hall with several of the windows lining the Hall pocked with marks from where bricks had flown through them.

With a quick wave of his wand, Harry fixed the broken bone in his hand, grimacing as it set back in place. Flexing his hand as he walked, Harry started back through the rubble, hoping that no one was trapped under the wreckage. Unfortunately, Harry would not get his wish. Only a few seconds after he began his search, he noticed one student, a small boy no older than twelve with Slytherin robes on. He was pinned under a rock no bigger than a bowling ball but it wasn't that rock that was worrisome. It was the blood flowing openly from the wound on his head.

"Hermione!" Harry shouted as he reached down to pick up the rock on the boy's chest. As he did that, Hermione grabbed him under his shoulders and knees, picking him up and racing back to the far end of the Great Hall where she laid him on the Head Table and began to examine him for other injuries. Seeing that Hermione had taken care of that, Harry turned to the other students in the room.

"Start looking!" Harry said, his voice ringing through the silent Hall. "Make sure that no one else is under there!"

Over the course of the next ten minutes, however, the students who had been present in the Great Hall found three other students buried in the rubble. While none of them would die, all of them would spend several nights in the Hospital Wing recovering from their injuries. Four students in total had been hurt today and it was a miracle that none of them had been killed. When you added their number to those that had been injured in the other collapse, the casualties of the rapidly decaying castle were starting to grow.

Just then, Minerva entered the Great Hall, approaching Harry with a look of worry on her face. Harry quickly caught her up on the results of their search through the ruins. Almost immediately, Minerva took Harry by the arm and escorted him from the Great Hall, motioning for Hermione to follow. Once they were all out of earshot of the other students, Minerva spoke, her voice trembling.

"The Astronomy Tower just fell in on itself."

Harry was certain that he hadn't heard Minerva correctly. But when he asked her to repeat herself, he heard those same words over again.

"The castle is falling." Hermione muttered in horror.

"It is." Minerva said. "Ms. Granger, it is essential that you find as much information about the Keystone as possible. Harry, I need you to work with Ms. Greengrass on ensuring that our evacuation plans are ready to go."

"The school isn't closing now?" Hermione asked. Harry couldn't believe that she would ask that question. While the school was certainly not in great shape, there was no question that with the current climate, its students were safer there than they were at home. At least at Hogwarts, they could be protected by great practitioners of magic like Minerva McGonagall.

"No." Minerva said, making sure that no one was listening to their conversation. "The school will remain open until we are certain that there is no chance that the castle can be saved."

"But we're putting a lot of lives in danger, aren't we?"

"They'd be in danger either way." Harry countered. "At least here, we can protect them."

"Until the roof caves in." Hermione snapped. "What happens then?"

"So far, these events have occurred several months apart." Minerva said. "If that is true, then this should be the last one until after exams have occurred and the students have been sent home. We'll be discussing the possibility of moving exams forward during our staff meeting on Sunday."

However, at that moment, something happened that immediately superceded the concern of the collapsing castle. Hagrid, sweating profusely and clearly out of breath, came rushing into the Entrance Hall, stopping just a few feet away from Minerva. Several times, he attempted to speak but found himself unable to catch his breath.

"Breathe, man." Minerva said. "What's so goddamn important?"

"I jus' got done talkin' ter Firenze. He said….that the centaurs spotted a couple o' robed folk...wanderin' out in the Forest." said Hagrid in between rushed breaths.

"Robed folk?" Minerva asked urgently. "Did he mean-"

"Death Eaters, ma'am." Hagrid said as he finally able to stand upright. "There's Death Eaters in the Forest."

For a moment, Minerva stood, frozen in place as if she had been hit with the Full Body Bind. Then, as if her body finally caught up with her mind, Minerva acted.

"Harry, I need you to find Bill and Fleur. They should be near the entrance to the Astronomy Tower." Minerva said suddenly. "Hermione, I want you to look after the students in the Great Hall until Madam Pomfrey is done tending to those that were caught in the Astronomy Tower."

"What do yeh want me ter do, ma'am?" Hagrid asked.

"Lockdown the castle." Minerva said, sounding more like a general than a schoolmaster at the moment. "No one gets in or out without my knowledge."

"Yes, ma'am." Hagrid said before sprinting off to ensure that the front entrance was locked. At the same time, Minerva turned back to Harry.

"Go get Bill and Fleur." she repeated harshly. "Tell them to organize a search party in the woods. I want you and Miss Greengrass to get all the rest of the students back to their Common Rooms. Once you've done those things, come to my office."

"Yes, ma'am." Harry said firmly before turning to sprint out of the Entrance Hall. As Harry sprinted through the school, he noticed that almost every student in the school seemed to be in the hallways, blocking his path. They were all standing in large groups as if they were afraid to walk around on their own. Some of them were even looking at the ceiling, expecting it to fall any moment.

While Harry wanted to reassure them that it wouldn't happen, he knew that he couldn't do that. Harry believed in keeping Hogwarts open. He believed that it was a safer place than any at the moment, considering the threat of Death Eater attacks, even if the castle was starting to come apart under its own weight.

While Harry darted through the crowds, he began ordering students back to their Common Rooms. At first, it didn't seem as if they would listen. But when several other Prefects added their voice to Harry's, they seemed to get that it wasn't a suggestion. Still, it took him another several minutes to fight through the crowds of people, most of them now walking towards him, preventing him from easily getting through the halls of the school.

When Harry finally reached the spot where the entrance to the Astronomy Tower had been, Harry saw exactly what Minerva meant when she said that the Tower had collapsed on itself. The stairs to the Astronomy Tower were one of the few in the castle that didn't move, a spiral set that started at the base of the tower, extending all the way up to the Observation Deck.

However, that staircase no longer existed. Instead, a pile of rubble covered the door, a new wall of loose stone preventing anyone from entering the door. Outside the former entrance, Bill and Fleur stood with roughly a dozen students that had been in the area when the tower had fallen. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be seriously injured.

Harry sprinted towards Bill and Fleur, who was the first to notice him.

"'Arry? What are you doing here?"

"Hagrid just came in from the Forest." Harry said, fighting to keep his voice down over his ragged breathing. "He said that the centaurs have spotted Death Eaters in the Forest. McGonagall wants you to organize a search party while I secure the students in their Common Rooms."

"We can't leave these students here." Bill replied.

"They'll be with me." Harry said. "Minerva ordered you out there so you had better get moving. If there really are Death Eaters out there, we need to know."

"Of course." Fleur said as she pulled Bill towards the stairs.

"Be careful!" Harry shouted at their retreating frames. Once they were out of sight, Harry pulled out his wand, leveling it down the hall where they had left.

" _Expecto Patronum!"_

Harry's Patronus erupted from the end of Harry's wand, stopping abruptly before he turned to face Harry. Prongs must have sensed just how much of a hurry Harry was in to have responded so quickly.

"Find Daphne Greengrass and give her this message: I need you to start getting all students to their Common Rooms."

Prongs nodded firmly and then sprinted with unnatural speed in the opposite direction, searching for his target with great haste. Knowing that Daphne would begin the process of securing the students while Hermione was busy attending to those in the Great Hall, Harry turned his attention to the students in the hall with him. Most of them had injuries that would have made it difficult to stand, let alone walk.

Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey was already there, working on getting as many of the students fixed as possible.

"How long until they're all ready to walk?" Harry asked.

"Twenty minutes or so." Madam Pomfrey replied. If she took exception to Harry's brisk tone, she didn't mention it. "Some of them will still need help."

"That's fine. We just need them out of the hallway."

Harry stood guard as Madam Pomfrey worked her magic, moving from student to student and providing the most basic medical help before sending them on their way. True to her word, she finished exactly twenty minutes later, sending the last group of Ravenclaws on their way.

"They'll need more attention later." Madam Pomfrey said.

"They'll get it but right now, we just have to get them to a safe place."

"Then why are they still in the castle?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she raced passed Harry and back towards the Hospital Wing. For a moment, Harry considered that Madam Pomfrey was now the second person in the last half hour to suggest closing the school, a thought that Harry still found to be unfathomable. Even if the school was struggling to remain upright, it was still a safer place than being out in the world with the Death Eaters, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

Harry knew that he didn't have time to linger on this line of thinking. He sprinted back down the stairs and met Minerva and Hermione, who had finished seeing to as many of the students in the Great Hall as possible, back in the Entrance Hall.

"Bill and Fleur took Professor Calhoun and Professor Sprout to search the Forest." Minerva said to Harry. "We need to get the rest of these students back to their Common Rooms."

"I'll take care of that."

Daphne Greengrass had appeared out of nowhere, clearly having received Harry's message.

"Thank you for coming, Ms. Greengrass." Minerva said. "You would be willing to take on that responsibility?"

"Yes." was Daphne's simple response.

"Very well. After that is done, I would like you to come back to the Entrance Hall and confer with Harry and Hermione on the evacuation plan in case we need it."

"Yes, Professor." Daphne said before she took off towards the Great Hall, having received her task. Minerva watched her go for a moment before she turned back to Harry and Hermione.

"Ms. Granger, I would like you to remain here and coordinate with the Prefects from their Common Rooms. Make sure that they get a proper headcount of every student and are aware of the evacuation protocols."

Hermione nodded firmly and immediately started sending Patronus messages throughout the school. In that moment, Harry couldn't help but be thankful that they had taught of all of the Prefects how to communicate using this method.

"Harry, I want you to make sure that all of the secret passages into the school are empty." Minerva said. "If the Death Eaters have been out there, then they might have found a way into the school."

"Understood." Harry said as he raced out of the Great Hall. Over the next hour, Harry checked all seven of the secret passages that lead out of the school. He even checked the Room of Requirement, although the room was no longer as functional as it had once been due to the Fiendfyre attack during the Battle of Hogwarts. Thankfully, it did not look as if the Death Eaters had been using any of the secret entrances.

Still, Harry placed a series of tracking charms on the entrances, linking them to the Marauder's Map. Now, if someone used the doors, Harry would know and could be prepared to intercept the Death Eaters before they could get into the castle proper.

When Harry returned to the Great Hall, he saw that most of the rubble had already been pushed to the side by several of the Professors, clearing a path down the center of the room towards the Head Table where Minerva sat with the professors, listening to a report from Bill.

"...appears to have been out there. The site was fresh with a fire still going. They clearly knew we were coming and decided to get out instead of waiting for us to find them there."

"But they were spying on the school?"

"We can't confirm that." Bill said. "But I do believe that was their job."

At this moment, Minerva noticed Harry and motioned for him to join them.

"The secret passages?"

"Empty." Harry replied. "I left tracking charms on them so I'll know if they're being used."

"Well done." Minerva said and despite the situation, Harry felt himself stand a little taller. "Bill was just telling us about the Death Eater camp."

"I heard." Harry said before turning to Bill. "How many were there?"

"It looked like at least four." Bill replied. "It's possible that they were rotating and only one was present at any given time."

"How did they get there?" Calhoun asked. "Isn't the Forest protected under the castle's wards?"

"It is." Minerva confirmed. "My assumption would be that they are Apparating into Hogsmeade and then entering the Forest from there."

"In either case, we have to address the fact that Death Eaters are watching the castle around the clock." Harry said.

"Yes, yes we do." Minerva said. "Gather the rest of the staff in the Entrance Hall. We have a lot we need to discuss."


	38. Thirty-Eight

Just like the last time a catastrophe of this size struck the school, the staff of Hogwarts met in the staff room to discuss the future of the school. But unlike last time, where there had been a general mood of morbid curiosity, Harry could sense only one mood in the room: fear. Everyone was afraid. They knew they were going to be faced with an impossible choice.

If they closed the school, Hogwarts as they knew it would be finished and without a ready-made alternative in place, they ran the risk of students being forced to forgo their education for several years until a replacement was created. While it was possible to homeschool your children, it was almost unheard of. In the modern era, parents worked, meaning that they didn't have time to be at home, teaching their children. It was just easier to send them to Hogwarts, not to mention the fact that it was a tradition for most of them.

In addition to that, the threat of the Death Eaters was definitely a factor in leaving the school open. Already, parents of two students had been attacked and killed over the last several months. If the child had been there, they would have been killed alongside their parents. While they were now forced to go through the same trauma that Harry had endured, at least they were alive.

But Harry knew there were dangers in trying to keep the school open. The castle's condition was rapidly deteriorating. There were no guarantees that it would hold up through the rest of the week, let alone the two and a half months it would take to get to the end of the school year.

Minerva spent the first few minutes of the meeting detailing the condition of the Great Hall and the Astronomy Tower, revealing that over a dozen students in total had been injured. By some miracle, none of them had been killed. At the same time, there was evidence that the Death Eaters had people watching the castle, observing them for weeks if not months.

"We face a choice." Minerva finally said. "Understand that if we close the school, Hogwarts as we know it will be finished."

"Yes but we won't have students buried under piles of rubble." Bill argued. "I don't understand how we can even consider keeping the school open."

"Because some of these students have nowhere else to go." Harry countered. "For all the Pureblood and half blood students, they'll be able to go home and they'll have someone there that can teach them something. But the Muggleborn students will have nothing. They'll go home, returned to a world that they don't want to be a part of anymore."

"But they'll be alive." Hermione argued.

"Would you have cared about that?" Harry asked. "Would you have been willing to return home and return to your Muggle education, knowing that you could be learning about magic?"

"The Ministry will come up with ways to teach everyone." Calhoun said. "They would not simply let students go without an education."

"Plus, they would be with their families and not here where the castle might collapse on them at any minute." Bill added. "We can't risk leaving them here when the castle might collapse."

At that moment, several people, Harry included, all started speaking at once. Within just a few seconds, a relatively civil meeting had devolved into several overlapping shouting matches, the sound of which covered up the others that so that no one could hear anything other than their own voice.

"That's enough!" Minerva shouted, silencing the room. "Whatever decide, I will not have this meeting or any like it turn into chaos. We are better than that."

Quietly, almost to themselves, everyone that had been shouting murmured their apology, waiting for Minerva to continue.

"Bill, William: I understand your concern. However, I do believe that we owe it to our students to do our best to try and finish out this year. Once we have completed this term, then we can discuss the future of the castle."

"But-"

"This is my decision, Professor Weasley." Minerva said pointedly. "Exams will be moved up to the beginning of June with students sent home the moment they are finished with their final exam."

"You are going to run the Hogwarts Express several times over the same week?" Calhoun asked. "Who is going to staff the train?"

Harry knew the answer before Minerva looked at him.

"By that point, we'll have our new Defense professor. Harry will have finished his exams by then and will be a fully fledged staff member. He'll be assigned to the train each day it runs to ensure that the students get back to London safely and without incident."

"That's great," Bill said, "and I'm glad we'll have Harry to help us. But that doesn't consider the other possibility."

"Which is what exactly?" Minerva asked.

"What happens if the Death Eaters decide to attack the school?"

Looking around the room, Harry could see that everyone was just as nervous about the possibility as he was. Harry had predicted this months ago. Of course, at the time, Harry had assumed that they would only have one thing to worry about. With the added concern of the castle's impending collapse, it made the possibility of a Death Eater attack all the more daunting.

"The Death Eaters worship the castle." Minerva said. "They would never destroy it."

"Voldemort worshiped the castle." Bill argued. "That's what Albus always told us. We don't know anything about how Dolohov feels about the castle. From what you keep telling us, he's not concerned with anything other than what brings him power. If he feels like bringing down the castle would give him that power, what's to stop him from doing so?"

"The Aurors." Viktor replied. "They are still here protecting the school, are they not?"

"And they were run over by the Death Eaters last time." Calhoun said. "If we hadn't been there to support them, they would have all been killed."

"You'll be there again, won't you?" Harry said, unable to keep a slightly accusatory tone from bubbling to the surface.

"Of course!" Calhoun barked, clearly offended by the insinuation that he would not.

"So then what's the problem?" Harry asked. "We have the Aurors as Professor Krum mentioned. We have the Professors. We have more than enough people to defend the castle long enough to get our students out."

"We do?" Bill asked. "You are sure of this?"

"Harry and Daphne Greengrass have been working on an evacuation plan for months." Minerva explained. "The Prefects have already been made aware of their duties. We will make sure that copies of the plan are made available for staff in the coming days."

"So ve are keeping the school open?" Viktor asked.

Minerva settled back into her seat, suddenly looking quite elderly, her cheeks lined with worry.

"We are." Minerva said, although Harry could tell that it required great effort to do so. "However, we will be calling in additional support."

"From where?" Calhoun asked as Harry noticed that Minerva was looking directly at him.

"Yes, Headmistress?"

"You have already begun to organize the Order of the Phoenix. I would like to use them one last time."

"How so?"

"I believe that you and Miss Granger created fake galleons that would allow you to contact Dumbledore's Army in case of an emergency."

"We did." Hermione said, proud of herself despite the circumstances.

"Do the same for the Order of the Phoenix. I will ensure that they are distributed to all members. If and when the castle is attacked, we will have the Aurors and the Professors but we will also be able to call on the Order to come and assist."

"Should we check with the Minister first?" Bill asked. "I know that he was a member of the Order but he may not like the optics of the Order operating without his express permission. Especially if they are acting as a fighting force once more."

"That is a good point." Minerva conceded. "I will talk with the Minister. For everyone else, remain vigilant. If you see something out of place, inform me immediately. In the meantime, do your best to keep the morale of your students up. They are going to be afraid and they are going to be worried about what the future will hold. Keep their minds on the things they can control and ensure that you are being as understanding as possible."

With that, the meeting adjourned and Harry and Hermione walked back to their Common Area in silence. While Harry was pleased that Minerva had eventually decided to keep the school open, he couldn't believe that there were so many people who were simply willing to give the school up.

His best friend being among that list certainly didn't make him feel better.

As they walked into the room, Hermione stopped in the doorway.

"Spit it out." she said firmly.

"Spit what out?" Harry asked innocently.

"You know what. You haven't said a word to me since we left that meeting." Hermione said. "You're upset about something and since you won't tell me, I'm guessing that you're angry at me for something."

"As always, you are quite the observer."

"Then spit. It. Out." Hermione said, a sharp tone in her voice that made her sound more like Minerva McGonagall than Harry had ever heard from her. For a moment, Harry considered ignoring her request. But he knew that he would fold eventually so there was no sense in delaying her request.

"I can't believe that you of all people would want to close the school."

Hermione's initial reaction made it look as if Harry had punched her in the stomach, all the air leaving her at once.

"How could you...I don't…"

Hermione released all the air in her lungs in a single huff, clearly trying to calm the rage that was threatening to overwhelm her.

"That's not fair." Hermione said quietly, her eyes not meeting Harry. "You know that I don't want to close the school."

"It sounded like you did. It sounded like you and Bill and Calhoun are ready to close the doors."

"Yes, Harry, because the doors are falling off their hinges!" Hermione shrieked. "How can you not see how dangerous that is? This whole place could come down on top of us at any moment!"

"I know that." Harry said evenly. "But we had a giant snake loose in the castle and we didn't close the school. We had a mass murderer on the loose and we didn't close the school. Dumbledore was killed by Death Eaters _inside the castle_ and we didn't close the school!"

"And they were wrong not to do so." Hermione barked. "Merlin, I love this place just as much as you do, Harry, but you cannot be so blind as to see that Dumbledore likely only left the castle open to give you a safe place to train."

Now it was Harry's turn to feel as if he had been punched in the stomach and unlike Hermione, Harry was not as good at controlling his emotions.

"How dare you." Harry growled. "Dumbledore left the school open because he valued education. He left the school open because he knew that it was a place of refuge for people like you and me. Would you rather he closed the school every time something attacked me?"

"Yes!" Hermione said, her voice climbing in pitch drastically. "Yes, he should have closed to the school every single time something like that happened. The only reason they didn't was because they were usually in June and only a couple of days away from the end of term anyway!"

"That may be true." Harry conceded. "But he also didn't close the school because he knew it was important for Hogwarts to remain strong. He knew that the school was a beacon, a sign of hope and strength for those who might not be able to find it in themselves."

"Harry, Hogwarts is going to fall."

"Not if you can find the Keystone."

"Even if I find it, I'm not sure that I'll be able to do anything with it." Hermione said. "It's magic beyond even me. Hell, it might have been beyond Dumbledore."

Harry felt a weight in his chest plummet. Hermione had always respected magic but she had never, in their entire history together, ever encountered something that she didn't believe she could beat. All she ever needed was practice and some time in the Library. To hear her so openly express doubt about her ability to restore the Keystone shook Harry to his core.

"I have faith in you." Harry said.

"I know you do." Hermione smiled. "But we can't bank on that."

"I can." Harry said. "If we close Hogwarts now, it's over. Hogwarts as we know it will be finished."

"I know."

"We can't give up." Harry said, knowing that he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Hermione.

Hermione paused for a moment, clearly uncertain what to say. Finally, she nodded her head.

"We'll do what we can."

Unfortunately, less than a week later, what they could do dwindled drastically. Harry was sitting in the Library, studying for his NEWTs which came closer with every passing day when Hermione walked into the Library and sat next to him. Typically, she would open her book and begin diving into her work.

This time, however, she did not. She sat and stared at the wall, a look of shock and disbelief on her face. Immediately, Harry was worried. Even though he had been ordered to remain in the castle and study, he had still done everything in his power to support Hermione while she was working on looking for more information on the Keystone.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked. "Did you discover something?"

"No." Hermione said, a tear streaming down her face. "No, I did not. I failed."

"What do you mean you failed?" Harry scoffed. "The castle is still standing."

"But Bathilda Bagshot's home is not."

Harry froze when he heard this. Immediately, he knew what it meant. He knew what it meant for himself and for the castle. Still, even though he knew, he couldn't comprehend it.

"What? How?"

"Death Eaters." Hermione said, crying in earnest now. "Apparently a Ministry official lives in Godric's Hollow. They attacked his house. Set in on fire. Before anyone could get there, the fire had spread to almost the entire town. The only places to survive were the church and the graveyard."

When Harry had said that he wanted the place where Voldemort had killed his parents to burn to the ground, this hadn't been exactly what Harry had meant. Still, he was pleased to know that, somehow, someway, the graveyard had remained intact. But as he had this thought, the sheer volume of the fire grew in Harry's mind.

He now understood why Hermione was crying.

"How many?"

"Over two hundred people." Hermione said. "Fifteen of them were children under the age of five."

"Merlin." Harry muttered in such a way that it would have sounded like a prayer to others. "How much of it is salvageable?"

"A few houses, a couple of the shops on the main road."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Hermione said with such a sense of finality that Harry felt as if he could see Godric's Hollow in his mind, the town now almost completely empty with the exception of a couple standing buildings and the hollowed out husks of the rest of the homes that had been burned down.

"Her research is gone." Hermione said, collapsing onto Harry's shoulder. "All of it. The journal, all of the documents that she had discovered about the castle, everything burned to a crisp."

Harry let these words wash over him. From the beginning, he had known that it was an uphill battle to try and repair the castle. Even the idea of finding information on the Keystone had seemed impossible. But when they had discovered Helga Hufflepuff's journal, Harry had suddenly been filled with hope, hope that they would be able to find the Keystone and restore Hogwarts.

Now, he knew better. Now, he understood why Hermione wept. Sometime, likely sooner rather than later, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would fall and become nothing more than a pile of rubble.

"Maybe it's better this way." Hermione whispered, causing Harry to push Hermione away so that he could look her in the eye.

"You don't mean that."

"I do." Hermione replied. "Now we don't have to fight more than one battle. The castle will fall and there's nothing we can do about it."

"How is that better?" Harry asked. "Hogwarts is the one thing that connects all of us. It's the one thing that everyone has in common."

"That's not true."

"Really? What else do we have?"

"Magic." Hermione said gently. "We all have magic."

"That's what brought us here." Harry said. "That's why we're here."

"That's exactly my point." Hermione said. "Besides, tell me one thing that you love about the castle."

Harry didn't know what kind of point Hermione was trying to make but still, he played along.

"It's where I met you and Ron and Ginny and all of my friends." Harry said. "It's where I learned about magic and where I felt safe for the first time in my life. I loved the feeling of belonging that being here gave me, something that I didn't even think was possible."

"And the castle gave you all those feelings, did it?"

"Well, no. But it's what it represents." Harry argued. "It represents all these generations of love and fraternity that have come before us and will come after us."

"But what is the castle without its people?" Hermione asked. "If you had a choice between saving Ginny or saving the castle, which would you pick?"

"Ginny, of course."

"What about me?"

"Again, you."

"Ron?"

"Yes, I would pick Ron."

"What about Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

"What?"

"If given the choice between saving the castle or saving Draco Malfoy's life," Hermione said matter-of-factly, "which would you pick?"

Harry thought that he finally understood the point that she was trying to make. Because try as he might, Harry knew which option he would pick from the moment she had posed the question.

"Malfoy." Harry said begrudgingly.

"Exactly." Hermione said. "Because you know that human life is more valuable than a building."

"So I do. What's your point?"

"My point is that maybe it's the people who make the castle?" Hermione said. "You aren't Tom Riddle. Magic alone wouldn't have made you attached to this place. You are attached to it because it's where you met the people that you love."

"Isn't that worth saving?" Harry asked. "This place gave me a family that I never expected to have. What about the next person in my situation?"

"Your situation is remarkably specific." Hermione said with a smirk.

"You know what I mean."

"I do." Hermione agreed. "Would it have to be here? Would they have to find that family here or could they find it anywhere there was a place where they could discover magic and find themselves and their friends?"

Harry finally understood the foundation of Hermione's point. It was the people, not the place. To a certain extent, Harry knew that she was right. But he also felt like the castle and its history gave him the sensation of belonging to something bigger than himself and the present day. There was over a thousand years of history at this site, connecting them back to the great witches and wizards of a previous millennium.

It was a thought that would stick with Harry over the next several weeks as he finished his coursework. Through the end of March and through April, no further events happened within the castle that necessitated any sort of drastic action from the staff. According to Bill and Fleur, it appeared as if the Death Eaters had remained in the Forest.

While they were clearly aware that Hogwarts was aware of their presence, they did not seem deterred. They simply changed their location once every few days to ensure that they were not caught by Bill and Fleur.

At the same time, however, the attacks outside of the castle seemed to have escalated. Now, it was an almost daily occurrence to open the Daily Prophet and see another death of another high ranking Ministry official. Occasionally, they would open the paper and see that it was a family member instead of the Ministry official them self. On those occasions, it was almost certainly followed by a resignation from the official in question.

As a result, the Ministry was in chaos with nearly twenty vacancies that no one would dare fill for fear that they would be the next attacked by the Death Eaters. According to Kingsley, everyone was working almost seventy hours a week to try and keep up with the work but with each passing day, they were rapidly falling behind. Aurors had been assigned twelve hours shifts, seven days a week until they caught the Death Eaters.

The Ministry had received a break of sorts in the beginning of April, a sighting of Antonin Dolohov in the town just outside where the Ministry believed Malfoy Manor to be. Operating under that information, the Aurors began work on breaking through the wards of the Manor. For nearly a week, they worked night and day until they finally broke through after almost two weeks' effort. Within an hour, they had sent every Auror in the Ministry into Malfoy Manor, hoping to find evidence of the Death Eaters or even some Death Eaters themselves.

What they found was some evidence. Unfortunately, it was evidence of a trick. While the Death Eaters had clearly been at Malfoy Manor at some point, it was also clear that they had abandoned the home months earlier. It was widely suspected that Dolohov had allowed himself to be spotted so that the Aurors would focus all of their time and effort on getting into Malfoy Manor while the Death Eaters could run rampant across the countryside, which is exactly what had happened.

With Malfoy Manor clearly empty, the question remained: where were they hiding? For months, Malfoy Manor had been the only suspected hideout with knowledge of the Dolohov Estate being limited to the fact that the home itself wasn't particularly large. However, they did know that the land that it sat on as massive, significantly larger than the land of Malfoy Manor. In retrospect, Kingsley admitted that he should have foreseen that they would prefer to use the Dolohov Estate rather than Malfoy Manor if they were in the process of recruiting more people to join their cause.

Unfortunately, no one had foreseen that. Kingsley knew that they had burned their chance to catch the Death Eaters. If they started working on breaking through the wards at the Dolohov Estate, they would surely be discovered and once again, the Death Eaters would slip through their fingers. Knowing that was not a viable option, Kingsley admitted that they weren't certain how to capture the Death Eaters.

The only thing Kingsley hoped for was that they could be dragged into an open conflict in a location where they could be prevented from leaving. Immediately, Harry wondered if Kingsley meant that the way it sounded because it sounded like he meant Hogwarts. While he knew that Kingsley would never hope that the Death Eaters attacked a school, Harry did have to admit that it would make things easier if they attacked the school proper since they wouldn't be able to Apparate away from the grounds, eliminating their ability to escape.

Still, as the month of April slipped by, Harry pressed forward with his studies, spending almost day and night with his nose in a book, frequently helped by Hermione or Ginny or both of them. Harry knew that he hadn't been particularly available for Ginny over the past few months but Ginny assured him that she understood why. Both of them knew how important it was for Harry to pass these tests. While he would be given an opportunity to take another version of the examinations in June with the rest of his class, the fact remained that if he passed his NEWTs now, he would be able to take a breath for the first time since September.

Bill had already agreed to remain in his classroom through the end of the school year which meant that if Harry passed, he would become Bill's teaching assistant. He would no longer have to attend classes and he would no longer have to study for hours on end each night. It would allow him to focus more directly on the school's defense and evacuation plans, things that he had been trying to fit into his schedule as often as he could.

Harry took his exams on the third weekend of April. The weather had suddenly taken a dramatic upturn from the typical rain and almost winter conditions of March. That particular day, the sun was shining and it was warm enough that you could spend most of your time outside with shorts on, something that almost the entire student body would be enjoying.

But Harry realized that he wouldn't be part of the student body any longer if he did well on these tests. His NEWTs would take place over two days. On Saturday, he would take the practical exams. First, he would take Transfiguration, then Charms followed by Defense Against the Dark Arts. On Sunday, he would take the written exams in the opposite order. Each written exam would be timed with a two hour maximum to complete each exam. Then, he would get a two hour break before he would take the next test. This meant that his day started at nine in the morning and would end sometime around seven in the evening when he was finally finished.

At that point, he would wait for roughly an hour while his scores were tabulated. He would then be informed whether he had passed his exams. While Harry had expected to be nervous, when he woke up on that Saturday, he found that he simply felt prepared. He knew that he had studied more for these three examinations than any single test in his entire life. If he wasn't going to pass them now, he wasn't going to pass them at all.

Transfiguration was by far the hardest of his three practical examinations. When Harry entered the Transfiguration classroom, the examiner, whose name Harry never got, immediately asked Harry to transfigure two desks into two separate animals, one a pig and the other a dog. Animal Transfiguration was among the hardest skills in all of magic and doing them one after the other without screwing either of them up was quite the task.

Thankfully, Harry performed the task adequately. While both his animals were relatively basic representations of their species, the fact that neither of them had any noticeable defects was certainly a point for him.

Over the next hour, Harry cast over a dozen different Transfigurations and while a few of them had their share of errors, Harry felt that he had done an acceptable job. Transfiguration was the subject in which Harry struggled the most and so if he managed to scrape a passing grade in that subject, he would be sincerely pleased.

After a short break, Harry, remaining in the Transfiguration classroom, began his Charms practical, also administered by the same examiner. Unlike his Transfiguration examination, there was no doubt in Harry's mind that he excelled in his Charms practical. Also unlike the Transfiguration exam, this was more a test of someone's practical application skills. Whereas in Transfiguration, Harry had simply been required to demonstrate the required skills, Harry was simply given a task that needed to be accomplished in Charms. No instruction was given on how to achieve the task, only that he could only use his wand.

The first task was to remove all the desks from the room without Banishing them. For several minutes, Harry looked at the desk before he simply performed a series of Disillusionment Charms on them, blocking them from view. The examiner smiled and nodded happily as she marked down his scores. The second task had then been to take those desks and put all of them in a small box that she had marked on the floor. Only seconds later, Harry had shrunk the desks down to the size of a matchbox before hovering them into the box.

Again, another smile and another mark. His final task for the examination was to hide from the examiner without leaving their sight. Immediately, Harry knew that this would require non-verbal magic so to keep whatever Charm he had cast a secret. Behind his back, Harry waved his wand, turning out the lights in the room. At the same time, Harry created an Atmospheric Charm that turned the room into a whipping rainstorm, completely blocking Harry from view. For added measure, Harry then cast four different illusion charms, each of them creating a perfect copy of Harry.

Then, Harry moved himself and his four illusions to the far end of the room, ensuring to remain in sight of the examiner the whole time. Once he was certain that he was in place, he cancelled the Atmospheric Charm, revealing five perfect copies of Harry Potter staring back at her. For a moment, Harry waited to see what she would do as she turned to examine Harry and his copies.

Finally, she stepped up to one of his illusions.

"What is your name?"

Internally, Harry laughed. He knew what she was trying to do. Most people would create an illusion like this and then be unable to do anything with it. Thankfully, Harry had studied hard in recent months. With another quick wave of his wand, Harry forced the copy in front of her to speak, transferring Harry's voice so that it appeared to come out of the illusion.

Four more times he did that so that when she came to him and he responded the same way, she finally concluded that he had adequately hid himself. When Harry cancelled the charm, the examiner appeared to be shocked.

"I thought you were the one in the middle." she said, looking to Harry's left where the first one to whom she had spoken stood.

"I was not." Harry said.

"I must say that I am quite impressed. It takes a great deal of effort and control to make that kind of magic work across a room."

"My thanks, ma'am."

Harry was given another hour break. When he entered the Transfiguration classroom, he was surprised to see the same woman was still the examiner for this subject as well. As he walked in, he also noticed that the room had been emptied of its content. Now, it was simply a large open room.

"Your task is simple." the examiner said. "You must last five minutes."

"Five minutes?" Harry scoffed. "That's it?"

"Yes." the examiner said. Then, in a move so quick that Harry hardly noticed it at all, she drew her wand and fired a Stunner at Harry. If he hadn't been a Seeker for years, his reactions honed to their peak, he would have surely been Stunned seconds after the exam started. As it was, he shifted his head just inches to his right, causing the Stunner to pass by his head, although he could still feel the energy radiating off of it as it passed by.

In response, Harry drew his wand and returned a Stunner of his own. She blocked the spell and from there, the duel was on. Unfortunately for the examiner, while she was a good duelist in her own right, she was certainly not as gifted as Bill or Fleur and considering he had lasted nearly ten minutes on his own against the two of them, this test was by far one of the easiest Harry would ever take.

In fact, after only four minutes and a particularly dizzying sequence of spells threw the examiner off balance, Harry hit her with a Disarming Charm, her wand flying into the air and into Harry's hand on the far end of the room.

"Wow." was all she could say as Harry returned her wand. "I have been administering this test for going on fifteen years and that has never happened to me."

"Not many eighteen year old students have spent most of their childhood surviving duels against adults." Harry said cheekily. "Don't feel too bad about it."

"I certainly won't. You are one of the most gifted duelist I've ever seen. There is no shame in losing to someone like that."

Having finished his practicals, Harry, now quite exhausted, returned to his dorm where he almost immediately fell asleep. The next morning, Harry awoke, still tired but ready for the day, and made his way back to the Transfiguration classroom. Again, the same examiner stood waiting for him.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Maria Breckinridge." she said as something clicked in Harry's mind.

"Breckinridge? You are Meredith's mother?"

"I am." Maria replied. "She has told me quite a bit about you from her interactions with you. I've worked in the Department of Magical Education for years and I couldn't resist the opportunity to see if you were as good as she had heard."

"Well, I'm hope I live up to those expectations."

"If you continue to today with your effort from yesterday, I can assure you that will be the case." Maria said warmly. "Speaking of today, the NEWT exams for these subjects are relatively simple. You will be given one seventh year skill to explain. We require one full parchment of explanation with detailed instructions on how to perform the skill, its uses, if there is any danger in using the skill. Effectively, tell us everything you know about the skill in a way that could be used to inform a fifth year student how to perform the skill in question."

"That sound relatively straightforward."

"It is. However, the judging criteria is quite challenging. It is expected that you detail almost everything in how to perform each skill in order to get an Outstanding."

"Well, I will do my best."

"Of that, I have no doubt." Maria said as she put the examination for Defense Against the Dark Arts in front of him. At the top of the page was his subject: The Patronus Charm. Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Who chooses what we have to write about?" Harry asked.

"The subjects are chosen at random." Maria replied.

"Lucky me." Harry said as he started writing. Roughly an hour later, when he had finished ahead of schedule with over two parchments of writing, Harry was certain that it was the best essay he had ever turned in, given his extensive knowledge of that particular subject.

A similar event occurred when Harry was handed his Charms essay, to be written on The Fidelius Charm. While Harry had never performed the spell, he certainly knew quite a bit about it. It took him two hours to get just one parchment of writing finished but again, he was certain that he had done an acceptable job.

The test that he had been the most nervous about was the Transfiguration written examination. It was his last exam over a two day period and Harry was already started to tire from the sheer amount of effort that the last two days had required from him. Unfortunately, Harry did not have the same luck with his Transfiguration essay. Harry received the parchment and looked at the words on the top.

Inanimatus Conjurus Spell

Harry immediately groaned. While this spell was only truly a fifth year spell, its explanation was one of the most complicated that Harry could have imagined. The magic of conjuring inanimate objects from thin air was not particularly challenging to perform. However, the methodology by which they operated, involving pocket dimensions and the manipulation of space, was horribly complex. Over the next two hours, Harry racked his brain for more information on the spell, knowing that this essay was all that kept him from passing his NEWTs and becoming a Hogwarts professor.

When the timer finally went off, Harry had managed an entire roll of parchment but it wasn't pretty. Harry was relatively certain that there were entire sections of his essay that were just downright wrong and he was absolutely certain that he had made some rather large leaps of logic while trying to explain the use of pocket dimensions.

Still, he was done and there was nothing more he could do. Harry went down to the kitchens to grab a dinner in relative silence before he reported to Minerva's office for his results. When he arrived, he saw that Maria was already there, speaking with Minerva in hushed tones.

"Harry, come on in." Minerva said. "Take a seat."

Even though Harry hadn't felt nervous when he started the examinations the previous morning, Harry was now quite nervous now that he was only moments away from discovering his results.

"How did I do?" Harry asked meekly.

"Well, as expected, your scores in Defense Against the Dark Arts were superb." Maria said. "Disarming me earned you a perfect score, one of the few I've ever handed out in all the years I've been doing this. Then, your essay on the Patronus Charm was perfect as well. In fact, I intend to submit it to a academic journal for publication, if that's alright with you?"

"Sure." Harry said, his face warming slightly.

"Charms was another exceptional performance. While some of your wand work was a little sloppy, the results were exactly what we're looking for." Maria said. "Your explanation of the Fidelius was occasionally lacking in detail but it was largely what we're looking for. I scored you at an Exceed Expectations for that."

"What about Transfiguration?"

Maria and Minerva shared a look that Harry definitely did not like.

"Your practical was Acceptable." Maria replied.

"And my essay?"

For a moment, neither Maria or Minerva would look at Harry as they suddenly found things around the room to be more interested in.

"And my essay?" Harry repeated.

"Also Acceptable." Maria said, a twisted smile suddenly crossing her face. "In fact, almost Exceeds Expectations. I could tell that you were nervous but your understanding of the magic is far better than I think you expected."

Harry couldn't believe it. For a moment, he was certain that he had failed. In fact, he had been relatively certain that he had failed since he walked out of the Transfiguration classroom the final time. But he hadn't. He hadn't failed.

"Congratulations." Minerva said, a proud smile on her face.

"Thanks." Harry said breathlessly, hardly believing that he had finally done it. Years of study had let him to the day where he could take his NEWTs an entire month early and not just pass them but pass them with perfect scores in one of his classes.

"Congrats, Harry." Maria said before looking down to Minerva. "I'll see you soon."

"Of course." Minerva said with a smile as Maria walked out of the room, leaving Harry with the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

His new boss.

"Harry, I cannot begin to express how proud I am of your effort and dedication this year." Minerva said. "You have worked harder than I think anyone would have reasonably expected of you and for that effort, you have now become the youngest professor in the history of the school."

Professor? That name still sounded strange to Harry when it meant that it pertained to him. For months, he had been working towards a singular goal of becoming a Professor but now that the day had come, he simply couldn't believe it was true.

"Now, we have some items to discuss." Minerva said. "First, you will be removed as Head Boy effective immediately."

"Really?"

"Well, considering the fact that you are no longer a student, it does not make much sense to have you in that position." Minerva replied. "I intend to promote Michael Corner to the position. Your thoughts?"

"He's been a reliable Prefect all year. He'll do well." Harry said, realizing that she was earnestly asking him for his opinion.

"Good." Minerva said. "As for your duties, I will inform your colleagues to not expect you in class any longer. Instead, you will now be Bill's assistant. You will attend every class of his, excluding the class for the seventh year, and do whatever he asks of you for the remainder of the school year."

"I understand."

"You will also be added to the patrol list for the professors, meaning that you will more often be required to patrol late in the evening." Minerva added. "Also, you will be installed as the Deputy Headmaster on Monday. This does not mean that you are in charge of anyone. It simply means that, come next year, you will be granted the ability to make decisions for the school in my stead and that I intend for you to replace me when I inevitably retire."

"Which I hope isn't too soon."

"You and me both." Minerva smirked. "Once the school year is over, the two of us will sit down and discuss what is expected of you next year."

"You're sure that we're going to have school here next year? Even with all of the research on the castle having been destroyed?"

"In this exact castle? No." Minerva replied, her voice filled with regret. "But, I do believe that we will still be providing education next year and if that is the case, we need to be prepared."

Trust someone as dedicated to education as Minerva McGonagall to not let the potential collapse of the school keep them from thinking of its future. Harry knew that she was worried about the future of the school. They all were. What would happen to them after the castle collapsed? What would happen to the future of magical education in Britain?

But for the moment, Harry let himself forget all of that. Instead, he returned to his Common Area, where he discovered a rather large group of people waiting for him. Hermione and Ginny sat next to each other on the couch while Parvati sat at Harry's desk and Luna at Hermione's. Opposite Hermione and Ginny sat Hagrid on what was certainly a reinforced couch.

"Well?" Ginny asked as she stood in the center of the room. Harry's response was a smile and a simple shrug of the shoulders, which was all the communication that Ginny needed before she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck, almost lassoing him into a vice-like embrace. Still, Harry couldn't help but feel good as the air was slowly squeezed out of him. The others in the room shouted in celebration and while he appreciated all of their reactions, it was Hagrid's that arguably meant the most.

Waiting until everyone else had stepped away from Harry, Hagrid stood from his seat and took a step towards Harry, covering half the room with his stride. In his hand, he held a cap, the kind that Professor Dumbledore had worn for years. Harry knew that the hat was traditionally what professors wore on the big feasts. Only Dumbledore would have worn something like this all the time.

"Congratulations, professor." Hagrid said, tears falling down his rugged features. "Yeh made us proud."

In that moment, Harry couldn't help but think back to the first moment that he had seen Hagrid in that Hut on the Rock. The half-giant had been massive and terrifying. Even when he had uttered those magical words, telling him the truth about what he was, Harry had been wary of the giant man. But it had been Hagrid who had told him about his parents. Hagrid had told him about Voldemort and Harry's importance to the wizarding world. Hagrid had been there at the very beginning of his time as a student at Hogwarts and now, as Harry finally transitioned away from that, he was here again, welcoming Harry, not as a teacher and a student, but as colleagues, equals.

Hagrid reached down and hugged around gently around the shoulders. While Hagrid was still the only person that could still make Harry feel like a child when he hugged Harry, he could still tell the difference from the first time he had embraced Hagrid at the end of his first year at Hogwarts. He was taller now, an adult and a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While Hagrid's embrace may have made him feel like a child, there was no taking away the feeling that he was finally on his way to discovering a life beyond Lord Voldemort.

A life worth living to its fullest.


	39. Thirty-Nine

Monday morning, Harry walked into the Great Hall and got ready to take his usual seat at the Gryffindor table when there was suddenly a coughing coming from behind him. Turning around, Harry saw Minerva, a subtle smile on her face.

"Good morning, Professor."

Harry looked around for a moment to see who she was talking to before realizing that she was talking to him. Instantly, Harry knew why she was smiling. Harry was supposed to sit at the Head Table with the rest of the Professors.

"Morning, Headmistress." Harry said. "Where exactly would you like me to sit?"

"Nowhere at the moment. Please follow me." Minerva said before turning and walking away. Harry gave Ginny and Hermione a glance and a shrug before following the Headmistress to the front of the room where Michael Corner already stood.

"Good morning!" Minerva said, her voice booming over the Great Hall. "This morning, I have two announcements to make. First, I am proud to announce that Mr. Potter here has completed his NEWT examinations and has passed them splendidly."

Surprisingly, the entire Great Hall (minus about half of the Slytherins) burst into applause at the announcement with the Gryffindor table quite obviously the loudest area in the room.

"As a result, he is no longer a student at Hogwarts. He will be assuming the position of Assistant Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for the remainder of the year. This means that I have also promoted Michael Corner to replace Harry as Head Boy."

Again, a round of applause for these announcements.

"Please remember that both of these young men deserve your respect and your attention." Minerva said. "I am quite certain that all of you have something that you can learn from Professor Potter and you would do well to take the rest of the year to learn from him what you can."

With that, the rest of the Great Hall went back to their meals. Minerva turned to Michael and whispered something in his ear before he walked away. Once she had taken care of that, she looked back at Harry.

"As Deputy Headmaster, you sit next to me." Minerva said.

"I notice you didn't announce that."

"I didn't want to put too much pressure on you all at once." Minerva explained as they made their way to their seats. "We'll make that announcement at the beginning of next school year."

Next school year. Harry noticed that despite everything, Minerva still held out hope that there would be school next year. She knew that it wouldn't happen in this castle. As things currently stood, they were certainly spending their last few days in the castle before it inevitably collapsed to the ground. Beyond all that, however, Harry saw that Minerva still held out hope for the future of their institution, even if it wouldn't be in this castle.

That little bit of hope was something that Harry, the rest of the staff and the students could hang onto. A small piece of inspiration to keep them going.

Harry's first day as an Assistant Professor was really no different than normal. On Mondays, the only class to have Defense Against the Dark Arts were the first years, the same class that Harry had been working with all year anyway. While Harry was a bit more directly involved in the lesson than usual, it was a relatively easy first day, especially since he no longer had to go to Transfiguration, a blessing from Merlin himself.

While Viktor was a good teacher, the sheer difficulty of Transfiguration at the NEWT level caused Harry more sleepless nights than Charms and Defense combined.

Harry actually spent most of the day working on plans for defending the castle with the new team of professors and older students that Harry had been assigned. Hermione, Daphne, and Ginny made up a bulk of the team with only Michael Corner being a new student and Bill and Ella Arnold, the Muggle Studies professor, being the Professors on the team. For most of the afternoon, they discussed possible entrances to the school.

Harry's largest concern was an attack from the mountains. If the Death Eaters could successfully make their way through the mountains to the castle, almost all typical forms of escape were cut off. It was still theoretically possible that they could escort the students around them by going through Hogsmeade but if Dolohov was smart, and he appeared to be so, he would have people watching the town.

It took nearly thirty minutes to walk from the closest entrance of the castle to the town and almost the entire length of that walk was spent under the castle's Anti-Apparition wards. While Minerva could theoretically remove them, it would be a gamble. If they removed them, and the Death Eaters discovered what they had done, they would be able to Apparate directly to them. On the other hand, if Dolohov saw that they were walking towards Hogsmeade in order to get out from under the wards, the Death Eaters would flood in that direction and cut them off before they ever had a chance to get away.

Thankfully, Harry considered this method to be unlikely. The wards of the castle spread in a relatively large area outside of the grounds, Hogsmeade being the sole exception. This meant that it was a nearly six hour hike to the closest place in the mountains where someone could Apparate. The hike was then a completely exposed march down the mountain directly towards the castle. Harry had already requested that the Aurors focus a small group of them on the mountain, ensuring that any Death Eaters coming from that direction would be easily seen.

While they may not have been able to escape in that situation, they certainly had the ability to defend themselves much better with the hours of notice they would have.

In the end, Harry assumed that they would come from the Forest. It was clear that they had already been watching the castle from there and to this day, no one had yet discovered how they got in and out without anyone noticing them. Whatever method they had discovered to do this would likely be replicated many times over.

After a long day of continuing to observe classes, plus the work done on the school's defenses, Harry returned to his dorm after dinner, completely exhausted. Normally, this would have been a good time to play a game or take a walk with Ginny. Unfortunately, while she was in the room with him, she couldn't have been further away. While Harry was finished with his exams, Hermione and Ginny were not. Harry had been able to drag them away from their textbooks for about twenty minutes of dinner and then both of them had raced back up to their dorm to continue studying.

Harry had also been informed that since he was a professor now, he was not allowed to help any student with their studying. If they brought him some of their work, he could look at it and provide critique but no more. Needless to say, Harry was prepared for his evenings to be quite boring for the next few weeks because until they were done with their exams, Harry knew that they would both be spending every hour of the day that they were not in class with their nose in a textbook.

Even Luna and Parvati seemed to be pushing themselves hard despite the fact that neither of them needed NEWTs to graduate or get the jobs they wanted. Parvati intended to go write for the Daily Prophet and Luna would get to work running her own business. Still, Harry supposed that there was a matter of pride saying that you had managed some NEWTs.

So, while all of his friends studied, Harry took some time to do something that he hadn't done in months: fly. He had Parvati go get Ginny's broom from her dorm before convincing two Aurors protecting the school to follow him to the Quidditch Pitch. The ground was moist, wet from days of near constant rain. As the sun was already starting to slip behind the mountains to the east of the castle, the sky was showing its Gryffindor side, red and gold stripes lining the air above him.

Harry walked all the way to the center of the Pitch, Ginny's Nimbus Twenty-Five Hundred in tow. Harry mounted the broom and took a deep breath before pushing off from the ground. Almost immediately, Harry was reminded just how much he loved flying. The fresh spring air pushed against his glasses, filling his nostrils with the scent of rain and mud and new life brought on by the warmer weather. Harry took off towards the goals at the far end of the Pitch, weaving in and out of them effortlessly. He climbed high into the sky, memories of Golden Snitches and rogue Bludgers flooding his mind.

When he reached the level where the students sat, Harry brought the broom level to the ground, letting it hover for a moment. Then, with just the slightest lean forward, Harry let the front of the broom dip. Inch by inch, it fell to the ground, slow at first but soon faster and faster like a car going over the hill of a roller coaster. Soon, Harry and the broom were aimed straight down, the wind whipping by his face so fast that it started to hurt.

Although Harry had been incredibly high when he had started his fall, the ground was rapidly approaching. At the last second, Harry pulled the broom to his left, pulling it into a tight barrel roll that left him flying parallel to the ground, his shoes skimming the top of the grass.

Harry took a few laps around the Pitch before finally settling the broom down in front of his Auror escort.

"That was some incredible flying." one of the Auror said in amazement.

"I'd say. It looked like VIktor Krum was up there." said the other.

"I'm not so certain about that." Harry said bashfully. "I'm a bit rusty."

"You were incredible."

"That he vas, vasn't he?"

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, Harry thought to himself as he turned to see Viktor approach the three of them.

"Professor." Harry said.

"It is Viktor now as it once vas." Viktor replied before looking at the two Aurors. "Vould the two of you mind?"

"We have to stay with Mr. Potter."

"I understand. Maybe you could watch him from a bit further away?"

Both the Aurors nodded their understanding and then separated, each of them walking about thirty feet in opposite directions, wand in hand.

"I tire of having the Aurors here." Viktor said. "I am hoping that ve vill no longer need them soon."

"You and me both." Harry replied.

"They vere not lying about your ability. You are even better now than you vere the last time I saw you fly."

"It's much less stressful to fly when there isn't a dragon trying to murder you."

"Yes, I imagine." Viktor replied. "Congratulations on your new post."

"Thanks." Harry said, more confused with each passing moment. Harry had seen Viktor two times a week all year and other than a couple small instances, Viktor had basically acted as if he didn't know Harry or Hermione. While Harry supposed that had to do with his position as a Professor, it was still a strange sensation for Viktor to suddenly approach him like this.

"You have been vondering vhy I came to teach here, I am sure."

"I'm not the only one. A twenty-one year old International Quidditch star chooses to come teach at a school? It's not exactly the expected move."

"I suppose not." Viktor said. "I always vanted to be a teacher."

"Really?"

"You are surprised."

"Well, you aren't exactly a social person. It doesn't seem like something you would love."

"No, I suppose you are correct. But, I have always been fascinated by magic and knowledge. It is why I first noticed Hermione."

Harry couldn't help but notice that he finally learned how to pronounce her name without stumbling over it.

"I understand that." Harry said. "Well, for a long time, I didn't, but I suppose that had more to do with the fact that I thought I was going to be murdered."

"That vould concern me as well." Viktor said before turning to Harry, a rather serious look on his face. "Harry, I have a question for you."

"OK?"

"Vould you have any problem if I were to ask Hermione to dinner sometime this summer?"

For the second time in his life, Harry stood stunned as he wrapped his mind around the fact that Viktor Krum: International Quidditch Star was asking him about dating his best friend.

"Well, would Hermione have a problem with that?"

"I am thinking no but I have not yet asked." Viktor admitted. "I very much enjoy Hermione's...place in my life. It is why I am glad that she is not in my class."

"Yeah, I imagine that would be weird." Harry replied. "Probably why they don't typically have teachers as young as you or I."

"I believe so." Viktor replied. "You are the person who is closest to Hermione. Vould you have a problem if-"

"If Hermione says yes, that's all I need." Harry said. "She's my best friend so yes, I am protective but I also trust her. It doesn't hurt that I know you."

"This is good. I am glad to hear this." Viktor said, a rare smile crossing his face. "Vould you and Ginny like to join us?"

Harry chuckled. "How about you and Hermione get through one date before you try and lump me and Ginny in?"

"This does sound like a good plan." Viktor replied with a hearty laugh.

As he joined Viktor in his laughter, Harry noticed someone running towards them in the distance. For a moment, Harry considered drawing his wand until he noticed the mane of red hair whipping behind her.

Unfortunately, the Aurors, understandably, did not notice the same thing. Immediately, both of them jumped in front of Harry, their wands raised.

"Stop!" Harry shouted as he raced in front of the Aurors. "That's my girlfriend."

"Understood." one of the Aurors said as they lowered their wands. Confident that neither was going to curse Ginny, he turned with just enough time for Ginny to crash into him, sobbing deeply into his chest.

"Ginny? What is it?"

For nearly a minute, Ginny couldn't answer. When she finally pulled away and looked up at Harry, her hands still gripped on the edge of his shirt, her facial expression was the very definition of agony.

"Ron's….unit. It...was attacked." she said, still fighting back the tears that Harry worried would overtake her at any moment.

Harry's heart sank. When Ron had joined the Aurors, Harry's worst fear was that Harry would wake up one day and see Ron's picture on the front of the Daily Prophet, an article honoring his sacrifice below it.

"Is he…." Harry couldn't finish the sentence. Thankfully, Ginny knew what he was trying to say.

"No, he's been injured and he'll need some time to recover." Ginny said as a wave of relief washed over him.

"Oh thank Merlin." Harry whispered as he attempted to hug Ginny. However, the look on Ginny's face remained hard and she resisted his attempts. At that moment, Harry knew something was wrong.

"What is it?"

Ginny's bottom lip quivered slightly.

"Neville." Ginny said as her tears began to flow again in earnest.

"What about him?" Harry asked, fearing the worst.

"He's...gone."

Harry couldn't have heard her right. He had momentarily gone mad, the result of too much work over the last few weeks. There's no way she could have said that Neville was gone. Maybe she meant that he had left the Aurors? Instinctively, Harry knew that none of this was true but he couldn't help but to hope and pray that it was true because the truth was far too horrible to consider.

"What do you mean?" Harry finally asked.

"He stepped in front of a Killing Curse meant for another Auror." Ginny said. "His body is at St. Mungo's with the rest of the Aurors who were attacked."

Immediately, Harry felt his legs give out as he collapsed to the ground. No tears came. Instead, Harry laid on the ground in shock.

How was this possible?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Over and over and over again, that singular word bounced around his mind, the question begging to be answered. The war had been over, right? That's what everyone had told themselves when Harry had defeated Riddle last May. But the truth was something far more insidious.

The war hadn't ended because the war didn't belong to Voldemort alone. Dozens of people followed him and they hadn't been defeated. The war wouldn't end until they were. Harry and Ginny were escorted back to the castle by the two Aurors, Harry's mind blank as Ginny nearly dragged him back to the closest entrance of the castle. Immediately, they went to Minerva's office where Hermione was waiting for them. Immediately, Hermione grabbed Harry and pulled him into a hug, her hands running up and down Harry's back as if to ensure that he was still there.

"The Floo has been connected to St. Mungo's." Minerva said. "Let's go."

One by one, each of them stepped into the fireplace and within a minute, all four of them stood in the lobby of St. Mungo's. Almost immediately, an attendant escorted them to the Fourth Floor, the same floor that had long been the home to Alice and Frank Longbottom. When they reached the Fourth Floor, Harry saw that most of the Weasleys were already there with only George and Charlie missing.

But the person that Harry noticed most of all was an older woman. He had met her on only two previous occasions but she had left a noticeable impression. After Harry briefly greeted the Weasleys, he approached her. She was sitting apart from the others on a bench at the far side of the room. Her hand was in her hands and she sat, alone, crying.

"Mrs. Longbottom?" Harry said as he kneeled down in front of her. When Augusta Longbottom looked up, Harry could tell that she was surprised to see him there. The wrinkles on her face seemed impossibly deep as if they had been carved into her face with a knife. The mascara that had previously been under her eyes now ran in long, black streaks down her face, staining the top of her jacket.

Harry realized that he had walked over here with no idea what he wanted to do or say, just with a feeling that he needed to say or do _something._ Harry decided that he would join her on the bench. When he did, she took his hand in hers, gripping onto it tightly.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Longbottom."

"My name is Augusta." she replied hoarsely.

"Then I'm sorry, Augusta."

"You have no reason to be sorry." Augusta said, her voice slightly strangled as she did her best to fight back the sea of emotions that Harry knew toiled just below the surface. "You didn't kill my grandson, did you?"

"No."

"Then you have no reason to be sorry. The people who killed my son, they should be sorry." Augusta said. Harry noticed the use of the word son.

Son, not grandson. Whether she was speaking of Frank or if Neville had truly occupied that place in her mind, Harry couldn't be certain. What Harry could be certain of was the difference didn't particularly matter. It wouldn't change how she felt and it wouldn't change how she grieved.

"Neville was one of the best people I ever knew." Harry said. "For as long as I can remember, all he ever wanted was the best for everyone."

"And then you showed him the best parts of himself."

"I'm not sure what you mean." Harry replied.

Augusta smiled. It was a sad, painful smile but it was a smile nonetheless. "When Neville returned home after his fifth year, I could tell that something was different. I knew that he had gone to the Ministry and I knew that he had followed you there."

"I never meant to put Neville in any danger." Harry replied. "I tried to get him to stay at Hogwarts and he refused."

"That's exactly what I mean. My Neville, he was such a good person. He wanted to help everyone. But for years, his weaknesses and his fears kept him from seeing just how good a person he really was. All he could see were the things that he felt made him weak and useless. But your group, Dumbledore's Army, it open something in him, something that he had never seen before, something _I_ had never seen before. Eventually, he told me about the lessons, how you encouraged him to do better. You showed faith in him and he believed you and because of that, he got better at magic, yes, but he also understood what it was that made him special."

"His desire to help others." Harry said sadly.

"It's why he wanted to be an Auror. I know that he didn't want anyone to go through what you had been through and especially not what he experienced." Augusta said. "Without you, he would have never seen that dream to become a reality."

"Yes but then he might not have been there today." Harry said. "Maybe he would still be alive."

Augusta slapped Harry's hand hard enough that the back of his hand turned a bright shade of red.

"Don't you dare do that. If not for you, my grandson may have never known just how wonderful he was. He may have only gotten to experience that for a few years but that is so much better than not having experienced it at all. You helped show him what he could be and for that, I can never thank you enough."

Harry sat there, speechless. With nothing to say, he simply held onto Augusta's hand, anchoring the both of them to each other. Just a few minutes later, a Healer came out into the waiting area. She had a grim look on her face, causing Harry's heart to drop into his stomach.

"How is he?" Molly pleaded.

"He will be fine." the Healer said. While she was clearly trying her best to keep the fatigue out of her voice, she was failing. "In the process of the attack, Ronald was hit with a curse in the arm. Thankfully, it missed anything vital. He'll likely have stiffness in that arm for the rest of his life but beyond that, he should be ready to go in a couple of days."

Harry stood, dragging Augusta with him.

"How many others?" Harry asked. "How many others died?"

"I don't have the complete numbers. There were some that died before they got here so they were never admitted as patients." the Healer explained calmly, talking more to Augusta than Harry. "However, I can tell you that six Aurors arrived here and then passed away as a result of lingering spell damage."

"Can we see him?" Augusta asked, her usual booming voice barely audible.

"Yes." said the Healer shortly. "I can only allow two people at a time, however."

Harry turned to the others who nodded him on. Taking Augusta's hand, Harry and Augusta walked in tandem behind the Healer, who walked passed the usual ward and into a side room just beyond it. It was immediately clear from the moment they walked in that this is where they stored the deceased until they were either picked up by their families or a decision was made by the staff on what to do with the bodies. In the room, there were well over a dozen carts, each of them with a sheet-covered body on top.

"How many of these are Aurors?"

"All of them." the Healer said as she escorted them to a cart on the far side of the room. Once Harry and Augusta were ready, she pulled back the sheet, revealing the slim, angular face of Neville Longbottom. His skin was pale and there were specks of blood all over his face that Harry seemed certain wasn't his own.

But beyond that, Neville looked as peaceful and as relaxed as someone in the middle of their Saturday afternoon nap. Augusta's head fell onto Harry's shoulder, her sobs returning in earnest.

Harry stood there, Augusta weeping in his arms, and in that moment, he felt more helpless than he had ever felt in his life. Harry was not unfamiliar with death. In fact, you could say that death was a common theme of his life. Year after year, it seemed as if those of Harry's loved ones that were living were quickly becoming outnumbered by those that were dead.

But in almost all of those instances, Harry was doing _something._ He had been fighting Death Eaters when Sirius was killed, destroying Horcruxes when Dumbledore died, and seeking to end Voldemort permanently when Fred, Remus and Tonks were killed.

Harry had been flying on his broom like a child when Neville had been murdered by the Death Eaters. If there had ever been a moment in which Harry decided to leave Hogwarts and join the Aurors, this would have been it. But even as rage and hurt and grief poured over Harry as he looked upon the body of the boy that had been brave enough to stand up to his friends in his first year, Harry knew that the desire to join the Aurors in that moment was just his ego talking.

Over the years, Harry had come to understand that, while he was vitally important to the war's efforts, he couldn't be everywhere at once and he couldn't stop everyone. Harry wasn't a god. Hell, he wasn't even as talented as Snape or Dumbledore.

There was certainly a possibility that if he had been an Auror and if he had been on the mission with them today, he might have been able to stop Neville's death.

But it was just as likely that Harry would have joined him under the white sheets.

All of this Harry knew logically. Yet, there was a fire burning deep in bowels of the very essence of who Harry was that wanted nothing more than to go and start murdering every single Death Eater he could get his hands on. It was only the sensation of Augusta's hand in his that tethered him to this spot, kept him grounded to ensure that he didn't run off and do something stupid.

"My boy." Augusta whispered next to him, her hand gently running through Neville's hair. "My boy, what have they done to you?"

Harry stood there, frozen in place, as Augusta spoke to someone unseen, cursing them and begging them to bring back her grandson. The longer it went, the more it felt like Harry was intruding on something private and sacred. Eventually, Augusta rested her head on Neville's chest, her hair splayed wide over his body. She seemed to have finally given in and Harry took that moment to walk out of the room, leaving Augusta with her grandson.

The moment Harry walked out of the room, the same attendant told Harry that Ron was awake and able to see visitors. Harry thanked the attendant and then made his way to Ron's room where the Weasleys and Hermione had squeezed themselves into his room. Looking around, Harry noticed that George and Charlie had both arrived.

Ron looked, in a word, awful. His head had been shaved down to the scalp, a long gash ran from just above his left eye and over the top of his head. Another one of his eyes was blackened, the clear result of something heavy hitting him. Harry also noticed that Ron barely seemed able to sit up, his chest caving in on itself with the effort of keeping himself upright.

Ron had never looked worse, not even in the days after his encounter the tentacled brains in the Department of Mysteries. Still, he did his best to keep up appearances, smiling at George's jokes and nodding as his mother told him what he would need to heal up.

But beneath all of that, Harry could see the pain in his eyes whenever someone touched him or when he adjusted his seat or even when he breathed. Harry knew that feeling, that desire to hide the pain you truly felt from the rest of the world, to put on a happy face so that no one could see how much pain you were really in.

As the hours passed, the day slipping into night, people started to leave. George needed to go back and make sure the shop closed on time, promising to return in the morning. Bill and Fleur returned to Hogwarts to help keep it secure. Percy and Arthur, high ranking Ministry officials, needed to return to the Ministry to get an update on the attack.

Eventually, Ron asked Charlie and Molly to get dinner for Ron, leaving just Harry, Hermione and Ginny with the scarred Auror. Ron kept his smile until he was sure that his mother was out of earshot.

"Good. We've got a few minutes." Ron growled before turning back to Harry. "Listen, we need to be careful."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"A week ago, my team of Aurors was part of a strike team sent to go after the home of Rabastan Lestrange, at least where he lived before the war. As far the Ministry knew, the property still belonged to him and we wanted to make sure that the Death Eaters weren't using it."

"Ron, should you be telling us this?" Hermione asked.

"It doesn't matter." Ron insisted. "We were ambushed. They knew we were coming. Someone from within the Auror Office told them specifically where my team was coming in the house. The rest of the teams managed to get out."

"Ron, you said this was a week ago."

"I did." Ron said. "For the last week, my team was tortured and summarily executed by Antonin Dolohov and his Death Eaters. When we entered the House, we all carried medallions that altered our appearances. But the Death Eaters knew that at least two members of our team were friends with you."

"Why did that matter?"

"Because those medallions would wear off eventually. Some of them only took a few hours to wear off, the others almost a week. When they would wear off, and the person's identity was apparent, they would murder those that weren't friends with you."

This news was certainly shocking to Harry.

"Why?"

"I don't know but I have my guesses." Ron said. "When my medallion wore off and they realized who I was, they started torturing me."

"They used the Cruciatus Curse?" Hermione asked, a knowing look in her eyes. Harry knew exactly why she had asked. Neville's parents had been driven to insanity by that curse. There was no doubt that he would not be able to stand by while a friend was tortured using it.

"Yes." Ron whispered. "Neville couldn't stand it. He fought and screamed and did everything in his power to get free. Eventually, they just executed him. If it wasn't for the fact that Breckinridge noticed a team of missing Aurors on the final report, we would still be there."

"That doesn't seem like an accident." Harry said. "Of course Breckinridge would notice something like that."

"I don't think it was an accident. I think it was part of their plan." Ron countered. "I think they specifically wanted to hurt someone close to you. They knew that you would come to visit me here and that the security here would be far less than it was at Hogwarts."

"They used you to draw me out." Harry said, a sudden chill running down his spine. Harry raced to the door, looking left and right. Considering that Harry was on this floor and an Auror had just been recovered after a week in the clutches of the enemy, the floor should have been crawling with Aurors.

There were none. Immediately, Harry returned to the room, shutting the door and locking it.

"Wands out." Harry said firmly before flipping his own wand in front of him.

" _Expecto Patronum!"_

Prongs erupted from his wand, disappearing beyond the walls of the room before returning to Harry.

"Go to Kingsley. Get help." Harry said, his heart racing.

"Harry, shouldn't we talk about this first?" Hermione said.

"No. Either Ron is wrong or he's not but there should be Aurors everywhere and I can't see a single one. If we're wrong, then we'll have been prepared."

Harry faced Ron and flicked his wand, causing Ron to levitate off the bed.

"What the hell!?" Ron shouted.

"Shut up." Harry said before looking to Ginny. "Check and see if there's an empty room on this floor. Go quickly and keep your wand ready."

"You know it." Ginny said, a steely look in her eye. Ginny pushed through the door and for several agonizing moments, it was silent. Finally, the door opened again and Ginny stuck her head through the door.

"Two doors down, across the hall." Ginny said. "No one is there."

"Good. Hermione and Gin, take point. I'll follow with Ron."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ron said, hovering over the bed.

"Pipe down." Harry growled. "If the Death Eaters are coming after us, we don't have time to get out of the hospital. But we don't have to make it easy on them. We can keep watch from there."

"Sounds good." Ron said with a curt nod. "Let's go."

"You heard the man." Harry said to the women. Immediately, Hermione opened the door and Ginny, wand first, walked out, followed by Hermione and then Harry with Ron floating behind him. Thankfully, nothing jumped out at them while they moved Ron.

Once they were in the room, Harry walked back across the hall and made sure that all of the lights were left on, giving off the appearance that they were still in there. Then, he returned, the darkness of the hall contrasted by the light emanating from Ron's old hospital room.

For what seemed like hours, they waited, three of them pressed against the glass of the door while Ron sat on the bed, almost constantly asking what they saw. For the most part, what they saw was nothing.

Then, there was something and Harry's worst fears were realized. From around the corner at the end of the hallway, Harry saw three figures, more shadow than person, wandering towards the light. At first, Harry thought that they were dementors before realizing that they were actively attracted to the light, a very un-Dementor thing. Then, he thought that it might have been Charlie and Molly before he counted a third person among them.

But he saw the masks when they stepped into the light, the surefire sign of the Death Eaters. Harry flicked his wand three times, casting two Silencing Charms, one on his shoes and one on the door before casting a Disillusionment Charm on himself.

"I'm going to go out and attack." Harry said. "When I do, I'll duck into another room. That should distract them and you'll be free to attack."

Both Ginny and Hermione nodded, the grips on their wands tightening.

Harry opened the door, silent as intended before sneaking out into the center of the room. While Harry absolutely had the ability to get all three of them with a single spell, he didn't want to kill the Death Eaters. They had information that could be used against Dolohov, after all.

So, he leveled his wand and took his shot.

" _Incarcerous!"_

Ropes flew from the end of Harry's wand, wrapping itself around the closest Death Eater, dragging him to ground. At the same time, Harry dove out of the way, loudly opening the door opposite where Ginny and Hermione waited. Sure enough, the other two Death Eaters followed the sound, their gaze looking away where the two witches waited.

It was their loss. Almost immediately, Ginny and Hermione stepped out and simultaneously Stunned the two remaining Death Eaters. Harry cancelled the charms on himself, allowing Ginny and Hermione to see him as they approached the Death Eaters. When he removed the masks, Harry quickly saw that he didn't recognize either of them, a sure sign of the Death Eaters' increased ranks.

Kneeling over the downed Death Eaters, there was a sudden motion above Harry's head. In a flash, Harry drew his wand and aimed to see Charlie and Molly walking around the corner, both with their wands in their hands.

"Where's Ron?" Charlie asked. It was clear that he was not surprised by the scene in front of him.

"Safe." Harry said. "Who did Hagrid bring with him to the Quidditch Pitch to see the dragons?"

"Maxime and it was the Forest, not the Pitch." Charlie said.

"Mum, how old was I when I told you that I loved Harry for the first time?"

"You were four years old." Molly replied nervously. That response caused Harry to chuckle despite himself, which earned him a punch in the ribs from his girlfriend.

"Keep your wands out." Charlie said as Hermione moved to stow her wand. "There are more."

"Where?"

"We spotted them on the main floor." Molly said. "I think they're waiting for us to come down the stairs."

"Why would we do that?" Ginny asked.

"Because in the instance that the hospital is protecting someone like Ron, they would active anti-Apparition wards." Hermione informed them. "We can't Apparate."

Sure enough, when Harry tried to Apparate back into Ron's room, he found that he couldn't move an inch.

"Dammit." Harry growled. "How many were there?"

"A dozen?" Molly said. "Maybe more? It was dark so we couldn't be sure."

"Well, we can't face them alone." Hermione said. "How long do you think until Kingsley brings in reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" Charlie asked.

"I sent my Patronus to Kingsley. I'm hoping he'll bring some Aurors."

"Then we might be waiting awhile." Charlie said. "The Aurors are as overtaxed as they've ever been.

From the stairs, Harry could hear what sounded like footsteps, running up the stairs, the heavy clicks of a dozen pairs of boots coming towards them. Immediately, Harry pointed back towards the room where they had hid Ron, letting everyone enter the room before he did.

Once they were all inside, Harry locked and sealed the door. He knew that if they discovered them, those seals would only last for a few minutes but that would be plenty long enough. Harry walked to the window, looking down towards the alley behind the castle.

"How far do the wards go?" Harry asked.

"No clue." Charlie replied.

"About a hundred meters." Ron said. "Why?"

"Because we're getting out of here." Harry replied, back up as far as he could away from the window. "I need everyone to cast shields at the same time that I cast."

"Why?"

"Well, there might be quite a bit of debris." Harry said as he aimed his wand at the far wall. Once he saw that everyone had their wand out and ready, Harry reared back.

" _Confringo!"_

A jet of light struck the wall, blowing a hole the size of several people into it. Immediately, Harry put his arm under Ron's shoulder, helping him up out of bed, before passing him to Hermione and Ginny.

"Get Ron back to the Burrow and then seal the wards." Harry said firmly. "Molly, do you want to stay or are you going with them?"

"Stay? What do you mean stay?" Ginny asked, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

"You guys have to get Ron far enough away from the hospital to Apparate him home. If we all run, we won't make it. Either Charlie or Molly needs to go with you to protect you while you carry Ron."

"No, they don't." Charlie said suddenly as he took Ron from the two women, picking him up in his arms. "Mum, come with me."

"We're just going to leave them here?" Molly asked.

"Mum, I can guarantee that the three of them are better suited for this task than anyone their age has any right to be."

Harry could tell that Molly was nervous about leaving them there. Then, Ron spoke up.

"You give 'em hell." Ron said weakly. "You give 'em hell and then you get the hell out."

"Understood." Harry said. While Harry could see that Molly still did not like this idea, having her son, the star Auror, agree to it seemed to calm her nerves a bit. Molly and Charlie, Ron in tow, then leapt from the hole in the wall. As they fell, Molly waved her wand in a circle, slowing them so that it seemed as if they were going to float several inches off the ground rather than make contact.

But they did eventually hit the ground and the moment they did, they took off running. Almost the second, the escapees hit the ground, the handle of the door snapped off. Someone had clearly tried to yank the door open.

"What do we do now?" Ginny asked.

"We give them all the time we can before we follow them."

"Are we going to the Burrow?" Hermione asked.

"No." Harry said. "We'll go to Grimmauld Place. There's no sense in trying to make things easy on them. But I don't intend to run if I can help it."

"You want to fight a dozen Death Eaters?" Ginny asked, a worried look in her eye.

"I don't want to fight them. But we're going to and we're going to win."

Harry stood in front of the door, Ginny and Hermione on either side of him. Rather than wait for the Death Eaters to break in, Harry decided that the time to act was now. With a flourish of his wand, the door went flying off its hinges, crushing a Death Eater between it and the far wall. The crunching sound the body made when it hit the wall suggested that the person wedged between the wall and the door was likely not getting up soon, if ever.

Almost immediately, two Death Eaters attempted to run through the door at the same time, only to be pushed back by Ginny's Banishing Charm. With a perfect window, Harry charged forward, followed by the others who stepped out into the hallway to see that Molly had been right. A quick count of the Death Eaters reached eleven. With the one bleeding on the floor, that made twelve.

The three of them made a tight circle, their backs touching, wands raised. The reaction from the Death Eaters was strange. Harry knew that they had been sent there to kill him and yet they did not react immediately. In fact, they seemed to be back away, looking from one to the other as if they were uncertain what to do.

Harry attempted to process this information. They severely outnumbered Harry's team and they had them surrounded, five on one side of the hallway and six on the other. The only advantage that Harry and the others had was that the confines were so small that their numbers didn't mean much, considering that they could only stand about three wide in the hallway.

Still, they should have pressed forward immediately, which could mean one of only two things. Either they had been ordered _not_ to kill Harry, which wouldn't have made any sense because the whole reason Ron was placed in the Hospital was to set a trap for Harry, or they were afraid.

They were afraid?

Was that even possible?

Harry had seen Death Eaters show fear exactly one time: during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries when Dumbledore had arrived. Other than that, they had been fanatical in their belief that they were stronger and better in every way.

Of course, they had been dealing with fifteen year old wizards at the time. Now, they were all adults, they had all survived the Battle of Hogwarts and there was a strong chance that all of these Death Eaters had been present in Hogsmeade when Harry had been responsible for the death of several of their comrades and then at the Ministry, when Harry had accidentally killed Greyback.

They had never been afraid of Harry before because he was a child, but mostly because he had been unwilling to kill them. Knowing that they would survive had made them fearless. Now, that certainty that they would be able to go home had slowed them down and it would be foolish not to use that advantage.

Harry whipped his wand high in the sky, mimicking the Firestorm's wand movements. Instinctively, all of the Death Eaters seemed to take a step away, which was all the time that Ginny and Hermione needed to Stun two Death Eaters on each side, leaving just seven Death Eaters. For most that would still be unbeatable odds but Charlie had been right, these three were certainly a different breed than most eighteen year old students (or seventeen, in Ginny's case).

Harry dropped his wand, crossing his arm over Ginny's, launching a jet of flames as the three Death Eaters left on her side, immediately catching them on fire. Within seconds, Ginny Stunned them and then doused them with water. At the same time, Hermione had engaged the four on her side, blocking every spell that they could fire while doing her best to return fire.

Harry and Ginny stepped on either side of Hermione, three on their side and four on the other, as they returned fire, a duel happening in earnest. The Death Eaters were all quite skilled but none of them so much as Harry who quickly dispatched the first Death Eater with a Cutting Curse to the knee that sprayed blood all over the floor as the lower half of his leg separated from the rest of his body.

The odds were now even and despite the fact that Harry couldn't see their faces, he felt as if he could sense their fear. Their attacks were sloppier and more desperate now as if they were trying everything in their arsenal on the hope that something broke through their defenses.

But nothing did. Hermione, the single best caster of Shield Charms that Harry had ever seen, had taken it upon herself to protect Harry and Ginny while they attacked, deflecting almost everything the three Death Eaters fired single-handedly. At the same time, Harry and Ginny attacked without abandon, causing one of the Death Eaters to slip on the blood of his fallen comrade.

Harry easily Stunned him.

Once the numbers finally shifted to the other side, the Death Eaters saw the writing on the wall and attempted to make a break for it. But before they could get even two steps away, they were Stunned in the back by Kingsley and a team of Aurors that had just come up the stairs.

Harry could only imagine what this scene looked like to Kingsley. A dozen Death Eaters lay on the ground, one of them likely dead, crushed behind a door, while another lie on the floor, screaming as he held the stump where the rest of his leg had been. In the center of it all stood Harry, Ginny and Hermione, sweaty, bloodied but still standing and clearly exhausted.

In fact, Kingsley's first words let Harry know exactly what Kingsley thought of this situation.

"What the hell happened here?" Kingsley asked, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration. They took the next ten minutes to explain to Kingsley what had happened, including Ron's revelation that the Death Eaters had targeted Harry's team because they knew that Ron and Neville were on it.

"Bloody fucking hell." Kingsley growled when they were finally done telling the tale. "Well, I'm glad you're all safe. Now, get back to the castle and stay there."

"What happens when the school year is over?" Harry asked. "I'm not going to stay locked up in the castle all summer."

"We'll figure something out then." Kingsley replied. "But until then, I am ordering you _officially_ to go back to the castle and stay there."

While Harry knew that he had more free reign than most when it came to refusing Kingsley's orders, that was not one that he was going to be able to deny. He had said it in front of about twenty Aurors as well as Ginny and Hermione. Harry knew that it was intended for all three of them.

"Yes, sir." Harry said firmly. "I understand."

"You three did well." Kingsley said. "Now, get some rest. Unfortunately, I am certain that this isn't the last time you'll have to do something like this in the coming days."

Fighting through the crowd now gathering around the site of the attack, Harry, Ginny and Hermione walked out of the hospital and down a back alley so they could Apparate back to Grimmauld Place. Immediately, they then took the Floo back to Hogwarts where Minerva was waiting at her desk.

The look on her face was grim, even worse than the expression she had worn when she had been informed of Neville's death.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"I received a letter." Minerva said, the piece of paper in question in between her first two fingers.

"From?"

"Antonin Dolohov."

Immediately, Harry felt like he had been submerged in the Black Lake. Back in December, when the Ministry had gotten the first letter from Dolohov, Harry had supposed that he would soon attack Hogwarts or the Ministry or even both. Another letter could only mean that Dolohov would likely be ready to move soon.

Of course, Harry realized that it was possible the attack on St. Mungo's was the first part of his plan, a course of action that had already been set in motion.

"What does it say?" Ginny asked.

"You may read it for yourselves." Minerva said as she handed the paper to the youngest Weasley. As Ginny held the paper out in front of her, all three read over her shoulder.

 _To the Headmistress of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry,_

 _I regret to inform you that your time in charge of the school will soon be coming to an end. In the months since my last attempt to take the castle, I have learned from my mistakes. Now, I understand what must be done. Hogwarts is truly a beacon for our people and there are too many people willing to defend it._

 _Therefore, they must be removed. When this happens, you will know. You will know that you are alone and that there is no one out there coming to help you. You will know that there will be no escape, no retreat, no quarter given to anyone who remains in my castle._

 _I know that you wish to protect those in your charge. Therefore, I give you twelve hours to evacuate the castle of all its inhabitants. If you do so, you will save the lives of everyone in the castle. If you do not, you will all die and the fault will lie with you._

 _Your old friend,  
Antonin Dolohov_

"When did you receive this letter?" Harry asked.

"Just after you left for St. Mungo's last night." Minerva replied. "Almost twelve hours ago."

"They knew that we were leaving the castle." Hermione said with sudden realization. "They must have someone watching the Floo Network for them."

"Which means they also know that we're back." Ginny added. "More importantly, why are we still here?"

"We are still here because I refuse to negotiate with Antonin Dolohov." Minerva said, her fierce growl in her voice. "I have no doubt that he would massacre each and every one of us, even if we left the castle on our own accord. The wards of the castle will protect us until the Ministry can reinforce us and then we can take Dolohov down on the grounds of the school, much like we did his master."

" _That's very sad to hear."_

Harry knew that voice. He had heard it the night the Death Eaters had attacked Hogsmeade. Turning around, Harry saw the face of Antonin Dolohov, not in the room but in the fireplace, his face shimmer in the rippling flames.

" _I did try to warn you that I would be coming."_ Dolohov taunted. " _I gave you the opportunity to flee, to save your children."_

"You would have killed us all anyway." Minerva roared.

" _It is a distinct possibility."_ Dolohov said, a mad look in his eye. " _But you'll never know, will you? Now, all you'll know is that Hogwarts will fall, its population destroyed and it will be entirely your fault, Headmistress."_

"There are children here!" Hermione shouted.

" _And if the castle stands when I take it, they will be given every opportunity to join me. If they do, then no harm will come to them. But I think we both know that most of them will be so_ _ **inspired**_ _by the Headmistress and The Man Who Lived that it will take some_ _convincing_ _to get them to see the light."_

"It doesn't matter." Harry said. "You'll never get the castle."

" _Let's be clear, if you do not give me the castle, I will take it. If I cannot take it, then I will bring it down. Those are my terms."_

Minerva marched around the edge of her desk, a furious glint in her eyes.

"No." Minerva said, fury radiating off of her. "No, you will never have this castle or its students. I would rather die than see that day."

" _That can be arranged."_ Dolohov said darkly before giving a feigned sigh. " _I see that I cannot make you listen to reason. It is too bad. Do you have anything you wish to say to the outside world?"_

"What?" Harry said in confusion.

" _You'll see."_

With that, Dolohov's face disappeared, the fire returning to its normal color for a second before a sudden wave of green energy came blasting out of the fire, knocking all four of them to the ground. Minerva was the first to her feet, rushing to the fire place, waving her wand over it several times.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"The Floo. It's been shut down." Minerva said. "No one in or out."

"They're trying to trap us in the school." Hermione said.

"They've succeeded." Minerva replied. "With the damage to the castle, I've been unable to affect the wards for the last several weeks, something I am certain the Death Eaters have been testing somehow."

"What do you mean?"

"The only person who can Apparate in or out of the school at the moment is myself." Minerva explained. "This includes by Side-Along Apparition."

"Wait, so the Floo's gone, we can't Apparate out-" Ginny said.

"We are trapped."

"But how did the Floo Network go out?" Hermione asked. Just as she finished those words, a silver light rushed into the room, a lynx, the Patronus of Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt. The lynx raced around the room before stopping in the center of the room.

" _The Ministry is under attack. Hundreds of Death Eaters. Must retreat. Stay where you are."_

As the lynx finished its message, it disappeared, leaving Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Minerva staring at the place where it had once been.

The Floo Network was down.

There was no Apparating out of Hogwarts.

The Ministry was under attack from an army of Death Eaters the likes of which no one had ever seen. Certainly, once they were done taking the Ministry of Magic down, the Death Eaters would be on their way.

"No way out." Harry said. "Guess that means we'll have to fight?"

Minerva smirked. "Unfortunately, I believe that you are right, Professor."


	40. Forty

Over the next few hours, the staff at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry worked tirelessly to bring the school's defenses up to snuff. While Minerva, as Headmaster, was obviously in charge of the entire school, she left much of the decision making for the actual defenses up to Harry, Bill and the rest of the staff while she desperately worked to try and secure some more help.

All night, she sat in her office, writing letter after letter. Some of them went to foreign Ministries, others went to friends who may be able to come support them. As the night went on, and the news about the Ministry's defeat at the hands of the Death Eaters spread around the castle, Harry expected for Minerva to receive more news from the outside world.

None came. Not a single message, Patronus, owl or carrier pigeon entered the castle that night. It was clear to Harry that the Death Eaters had done something to intercept their messages before they could reach the castle, which likely meant that they were intercepting all the messages that left the castle as well.

Still, Minerva pressed on, her hands cramping and her writing getting progressively worse as the evening wore on.

At the same time, Harry and Bill organized the school's defenses. Unlike the last time the Death Eaters had attacked the school, they were well aware that an attack was imminent. But, as Bill had repeatedly pointed out in the night, the last time they had been attacked, Hogwarts was still in one piece.

"That's no longer the case." Bill reminded them needlessly. Everyone knew the state of the castle. Everyone knew that one of the largest dangers of the coming assault was the fear that the castle would simply give out with everyone inside, crushing them instantly.

Due to his experience with wards and curse breaking, Bill decided that he would take on the safety of the structure itself. Along with several other professors, Bill spent most of the night warding and charming each wall of the castle so that if the wards of the castle fell, they would still have some time to escape before the castle came down.

Harry, on the other hand, took charge of the defense of the school and its students. Ginny and Hermione had been sent to the Courtyard along with Daphne Greengrass to activate the school's defenses. Much like last May, Harry had watched as the red bubble slowly descended from the sky until it touched the ground, enclosing the castle and protecting it from the attacks that were sure to come.

The students had all been locked inside their Common Rooms to ensure that none were wandering the castle that night with a few exceptions, notably the Prefects, any former member of Dumbledore's Army, Daphne Greengrass, Ethan Webb and Elizabeth Carlisle. Those students had been paired with the remaining staff and were told to patrol the halls of the castle and to focus most of their attention on what they saw outside the windows of the castle.

All through the night, Harry's heart pounded as he waited for that first curse to strike the shield and signify what was likely to be the end of the Second Wizarding War, whether they won or lost. Harry stood guard in the top of the Grand Staircase in the Entrance Hall for most of that night, watching for motion through the massive stained glass windows above the front gate to school.

Eventually, Minerva must have decided that the writing was pointless or that she could go on no more. Instead, she joined Harry in the Entrance Hall, both of them waiting for the inevitable.

"No word?" Harry asked.

"Nothing." Minerva replied. "We are alone."

Harry chuckled softly. "You know, when we were out hunting Horcruxes, we thought the same thing."

"But you were alone."

"Not by a long shot." Harry countered. "Day after day, everyone was secretly resisting against Riddle's Ministry, ensuring that they couldn't devote all of their resources towards catching us. Snape made sure that I got the sword so that we could destroy the Horcruxes, a direction that he got from Dumbledore himself. We were never alone. Not one single day."

"Yes, but in the end, you knew that you would have help." Minerva argued. "I have no such hope."

"Well, there is that." Harry admitted. "But I think before we're done, we'll get the help we need."

"You seem certain of that."

"Not certain, no." Harry said. "I just have a feeling."

Minerva smiled. It wasn't a complete smile. There was too much worry in her heart for that. But it was just enough to let Harry know that he had gotten through to her, even if it was just the smallest amount.

"Your parents would be so proud of you." Minerva said. "Even if they had lived, you would have had impossible standards to live up to. They were among the brightest students I ever had the good fortune to teach. But neither held a candle to the things that you have accomplished."

"Yeah, well, they never got much of a chance to accomplish anything, did they?"

"Too true." Minerva whispered. "Still, my point remains valid. You are one of the finest students this castle has ever seen and certainly its greatest defender."

"That was Dumbledore." Harry replied.

"Albus was your defender, Harry. While Albus undoubtedly loved all of his students, you were his favorite and his most important. He protected you above all else, even at the expense of his own life. He protected you so that when the time came, you could protect everyone. Not since the days of the Founders has this castle had such a champion."

Harry blushed at the compliment, likely the most surprising he had ever received. While he knew that Minerva valued him and his abilities, it was a far different thing to be compared to his parents and Albus Dumbledore and then told that you were greater.

For almost the entire night, Harry and Minerva stood side-by-side, waiting for something to happen. Finally, just before sunrise, Fleur approached.

"Minerva, we 'ave reports of ze Death Eaters coming into 'Ogsmeade." Fleur said firmly. "Zey appear to be engaging with ze Aurors but ze Aurors are struggling to keep up with zem."

"How so?" Minerva asked.

"Ze battle started on ze far side of ze town. Now, ze Death Eaters have reached ze center of town in less zan ten minutes. If ze Aurors do not come up with somezing soon, ze town will soon belong to ze Death Eaters."

"We can't help them." Harry muttered to himself, which garnered strange looks from both women. "Minerva, we talked about this. You told me that we can't open the gates of the school. Plus, they've tried this strategy before."

"They've clearly gotten better at it." Minerva said. "We cannot afford to do nothing."

Suddenly, Harry's words from the strategic meeting that Kingsley had held in December flashed into his mind.

"We need to check the Forest." Harry said. "The last time they attacked this way, we threw everything at them."

"And we managed to push them back. What is different this time?"

"Dolohov won't do the same thing twice." Harry replied. "We have people watching the Forest, don't we?"

"Of course." said Fleur curtly.

"We need to know if we've seen any motion there." Harry explained. "I would bet that Dolohov will send half his troops through Hogsmeade and the other half through the Forest. They've been watching us from there anyway."

Harry could tell that Minerva wanted to jump into the battle. He understood her impulse. Despite the fact that they had agreed that the gate needed to remain closed, both of them knew that there were ways to get people in and out of the castle without opening those doors. But, they also knew that they didn't need to attract any attention to those passages.

More than anything, Harry wanted to march out there, meet Dolohov face to face and destroy the Death Eaters once and for all. But he knew better. He knew that idea would never work. If the numbers that had been reported from the Ministry attack were accurate, they were hopelessly outnumbered. The school's staff counted only twenty and the students who could be trusted to do any damage in a battle doubled that original number.

That gave them a fighting force that was still half that of Dolohov's Death Eater army. It wasn't an impossible task to beat Dolohov's force. Harry would bet the considerable wealth in his Gringotts vaults that at least eight of the top ten most powerful people in this battle would fight on the side of Hogwarts. Dolohov's numbers only meant that Harry couldn't race out to match the Death Eaters in open combat.

It didn't mean that there weren't ways to even the odds and then, eventually, win. But all of those methods would take patience, something that Harry was never particularly known for. Thankfully, Harry understood that patience now would be what saved them later. It would be the thing that made sure they got through the day and the night and all the rest that followed.

"Fleur, check with those who are watching the Forest. If they've seen any motion, anything at all, you let me know."

"Oui." Fleur said before running off towards Gryffindor Tower where a group of students from the House had been arranged into a lookout of sorts. As she ran, Minerva turned back to Harry.

"You had better be right."

"If I'm not, then we'll figure out how to help the Aurors." Harry said. "But I don't think I will be."

"Why not?"

"Because I've lost a lot of wizard's chess."

"Excuse me?"

"Over the years, Ron and I played more games of wizard's chess than I can count." Harry said, chuckling at Minerva's severe reaction. "Ron beat me almost every single time. He would use the same strategy over and over again until I finally put myself in a position to beat it. But just then, he would change something. He would retreat a piece that he normally attacked with or he would strike from a different place on the board."

"He would use your prior experience against you." Minerva reasoned.

"Exactly. Dolohov was an Auror and from the few things I've heard, a rather brilliant tactician during his time with the Office." Harry said. "This means that if he's smart, he'll be trying to use our experience against us. He's showed his hand before. The gambit is the troops in the Forest. He's banking on us throwing everything we have at Hogsmeade so that he can take the castle with the smaller force in the woods."

Minerva, for the second time that evening, looked impressed. Just then, Fleur returned from Gryffindor Tower, a grim look on her face.

"Ze lookouts have seen Death Eaters in ze Forest." Fleur said, out of breath, as she finally came to a stop in front of them. Harry immediately noticed that Hermione, Ginny and Daphne were following her.

"What is it?" Harry asked. The three women had been assigned to lead another lookout in the Headmistress's Office once they had completed the shield's for the school. If they were no longer in the Tower, that meant something had gone wrong.

"The Death Eaters are going to take Hogsmeade if we don't do something." Ginny growled, her wand already in her hand. "What's the plan?"

"We must deal with ze Death Eaters in ze Forest as well." Fleur reminded Minerva.

"What?" Hermione said.

"There is a second group of Death Eaters, " Harry replied, "in the Forbidden Forest. If we move to help the Aurors, they will attack and they'll likely take the school."

"But if we don't do anything, the Aurors are going to die." Ginny said, her jaw clenched as she spoke. It was clear that Ginny wasn't thinking about all of the Aurors, just the one that had escaped from St. Mungo's only a few hours earlier. Harry knew that no matter the choice, there was no good option. If they did nothing, they would survive for some time longer but the Aurors would either be captured or massacred. On the other hand, if they raced out to defend them, the Death Eaters would be in a good position to take the school. While it wasn't a guarantee, it was a risk that felt too dangerous to take.

For a moment, everyone stared at Minerva as she thought through what to do. Finally, she looked at Harry.

"What would you do?"

Harry had known before she even asked. "Nothing. If we lose the castle, it doesn't matter how many Aurors we save."

"What!?" Ginny barked. "You're just going to let them die?"

Harry turned to Ginny. "We can't do anything for them. There are children here, eleven year old children who have no chance at defending themselves. If the choice is between protecting them or protecting the Aurors, I choose the children."

"There's no way to do both?" Hermione asked.

"None that I can see." Minerva said, a tone of defeat in her voice. She turned to Harry. "Find Bill and Professor Calhoun. Inform them that, under no circumstances are they to engage the Death Eaters or leave the castle without my permission."

"Yes, ma'am." Harry said before taking off towards the Great Hall where he knew that Bill had been last. As he walked, he noticed that Ginny had followed. For a few moments, he waited, knowing that she had something on her mind.

When she wouldn't say it, Harry stopped and faced her.

"Spit it out." Harry said firmly.

"I'm not your student." Ginny said. "You don't give me orders."

"You're pissed that we're not helping the Aurors."

"You're damn right I am."

"Do you think that letting the first years die is worth the lives of a few Aurors?"

"We could have sent a smaller team." Ginny replied. "We didn't need to send everyone like we did the last time."

"It wouldn't have worked. Last time, we had the Aurors, the candidates _and_ the staff defending the castle. The staff is smaller now, the Aurors have no reinforcements and the Death Eaters outnumber them four to one. A small team wouldn't have done anything."

"It would have been better than not doing anything!" Ginny shouted, her voice bouncing off the cold stone of the hallway surrounding them.

"Are you sure?" Harry countered. "Are you certain that it would have helped? Are you willing to risk the castle and the lives of every single person inside?"

Ginny opened her mouth, clearly ready to fire a response. However, just as the start of her first sound dribbled out of her mouth, she stopped herself, freezing in place for a moment before she eventually closed her mouth and settled into a much less aggressive posture.

"No." Ginny admitted. "But we can't just sit here."

"I know. But what are our other options at the moment? The Aurors are going to get slaughtered and the Ministry sounds like it got overrun before the Death Eaters even got here. We can't just run out and face them. We'll all get killed and then they'll take the castle."

"So what are we going to do?"

Harry sighed deeply, the air rushing out hot and fast. "I'm not certain." he admitted. "I have faith in this castle. Even though it's not in the best of shape-"

"That might be underselling the problem a bit."

"Even though it's not in the best shape," Harry repeated, "I still think that it can hold up long enough for us to figure out a way to even the odds."

Harry and Ginny walked to the Great Hall where Bill and Calhoun worked on organizing students and staff to defend the castle should its defenses fall. Harry relayed the message and then returned to his perch at the top of the stairs in the Entrance Hall, hoping that they would receive a break of some kind, something that would show Harry the way forward and reward the faith that Harry had shown in the castle and its people.

But Harry's faith in the castle would soon be tested. As the day wore on, the battle between the Death Eaters and Aurors raged on. Harry and Minerva, along with Hermione, Ginny and Daphne, watched from the balcony of the Headmistress's Office. While the view wasn't perfect (they were almost half a kilometer away from the town), they could see the general shape of the battle, which ebb and flowed but almost always ended up pushing a little closer to the castle.

Still, no help from the Ministry came, not even when the town started to burn and the sounds of spellwork slowly came to a stop. It had taken almost an entire day but finally, the Death Eaters controlled Hogsmeade as Harry saw half a dozen Aurors finally make their retreat, sprinting towards the castle.

Harry knew what would happen to them if they got too close to the castle. He attempted to send his Patronus, warning them to run away from the castle. But whatever wards the Death Eaters had used to prevent messages caused Prongs to vanish just moments before he reached the Aurors.

That meant that even though Harry wanted nothing more than to help out the Aurors fleeing from the Death Eaters, there was nothing he, or any of the others, could do without lifting the barriers. Thankfully, the first Auror hit the barrier with plenty of time for the others to stop before they too were vaporized into nothing. The rest looked on with horror as their friend hit the barrier, his body evaporating instantly, his cries disappearing along with the rest of his body.

The rest of the Aurors sprinted off in the direction of the Forest. Harry hoped beyond hope that they did not run into the Death Eaters that were waiting in the Forest, but Harry knew that the chances of that were small.

Once the Death Eaters took the town, they made no attempt to surprise the castle anymore. Within an hour of the Aurors' retreat, the Death Eaters had wandered out of the Forest and taken to building a series of camps on the grounds of the school just outside of the barrier that protected the castle.

While they couldn't get into the castle proper, there was no denying who was in control of the castle. As the day stretched on into night, the first full day since the Floo Network had gone down, a letter appeared on Minerva's desk, another in Antonin Dolohov's handwriting.

 _To the Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,_

 _I must profess my disappointment. I thought myself quite clear in my previous letter to you and still you refused to leave the school. Still, I remain of two minds. On one hand, I should simply bring the school down around you, a punishment for your refusal and the clear indication to my troops that I will tolerate no one who stands in our way. On the other, I am loathe to execute a bunch of school children because of one senile woman._

 _Therefore, I offer you this final trade: Harry Potter for the lives of the students and staff at Hogwarts. Give me The Man Who Lived and I will let the rest of you free. Give me Potter and I won't massacre the lot of you._

 _You have until the castle comes down to answer. I imagine that if you wait that long, I'll have gotten your final answer._

Almost immediately, Minerva had set the letter on fire. She turned to Harry, a look of sheer fury in her eyes.

"Under no circumstances will I honor this request." Minerva said, knowing that Harry was considering giving Dolohov exactly what he wanted. "There will be guards placed at the front entrance of the castle. If you attempt to leave, they will be instructed to Stun you and lock you in the dungeons."

"This isn't even worth considering?" Harry asked. "We could negotiate, figure out a way that he would let everyone out of the castle as I turned myself in. Then, I could escape, live to fight another day."

"I'm not taking that chance." Minerva replied. "I will not negotiate with that monster."

"It's not your life to negotiate with." Harry argued.

"It's not your school to defend." Minerva countered. "Much like my predecessors, I understand the value of your life far more than you seem to."

"I appreciate that but we should-"

"If you dare utter another word on this subject, I will be forced to accept your resignation from the school." Minerva snapped, her words sharper than Umbridge's Blood Quill.

Harry knew that he was fighting an uphill battle. In truth, he didn't want to turn himself over to the Death Eaters. In fact, having already survived one suicide mission, Harry would always prefer not to have to attempt another. But he also couldn't sit here and wait while the castle collapsed around them.

Still, with no ideas at the moment, Harry remained silent. As the clock struck midnight that evening, the Death Eaters having finished their perimeter around the castle, closing them in on all sides, Minerva ordered everyone to bed. While Harry knew that he had almost no chance of sleeping, he obeyed, running with Hermione and Ginny to his dorm.

Harry, with Ginny resting on his shoulder, did sleep a bit that night. But when he did, his dreams were of Voldemort and the castle collapsing. Needless to say that when he awoke the next morning, he did not feel particularly rested.

Harry grabbed a quick bite of breakfast from the kitchens before returning to Minerva's office. What he saw surprised him. Minerva stood on the balcony, her back to Harry, as she watched as dozens of curses bounced off the barrier surrounding the castle. The moment Harry joined her, she spoke, answering all of Harry's questions.

"They started about an hour ago." she said softly. "There's a team of about twenty down there now. From what I can see, they attack about once every ten seconds or so."

"How long can they keep that up?"

"Assuming they stick with the basic spells they've been using, quite awhile." Minerva replied. "This shield is a masterpiece of a spell but just like any other shield, it is not impenetrable. Eventually, they will wear it down and when they do, the shield will fall and there will be nothing left to keep them from accessing the school."

"You say it's just like any other shield charm?" Harry said, an idea striking him.

"I did. Why?"

Instead of answering, Harry drew his wand and fired a spell that passed through the shield and hit one of the curses before it had a chance to hit the barrier.

"Shield Charms are designed so that you can cast through them as long as you are behind the shield and not in front of it."

"We could have a team to counter their team." Minerva replied, sensing Harry's idea instantly. "It would give us more time at the very least."

"It can't hurt." Harry said. "We have to do everything possible to give us more time. We haven't heard from Kingsley yet so we have to assume the worst. That means that it could be days before the Ministry is in a position to help us."

Minerva turned to Harry, a worried grimace on her face.

"Do you honestly think we'll last days?"

"I have no idea." Harry admitted. "But it's better to last days that hours. At least we have a chance."

Harry spent much of the rest of the morning organizing some of the older students into shifts to defend the barrier. They would go to the classrooms nearest where the Death Eaters were striking and strike back, attempting to hit the Death Eaters or, at the very least, block their attacks from hitting the shield. Either option would given them more time and time was their greatest enemy at the moment.

Unfortunately, there was no stopping the passage of time, especially when you wanted nothing more than for it to stop entirely. Later on in the afternoon, Harry and Ginny had been tasked, along with the rest of the Prefects and Hermione, with patrolling the halls, ensuring that no Death Eaters had somehow managed to get into the school, while also guaranteeing that the only students that were out of their Common Rooms were those that had been given permission to aid the defense of the school.

Harry and Ginny were walking through the Courtyard when a large stone fell from the sky in front of them. Harry's first concern was that it was some sort of attack that the Death Eaters had managed to get through the barrier. In the end, it was a much worse result. Looking up, Harry could clearly see where the stone (which was almost as large as Harry) had come from: the side of Gryffindor Tower.

"Oh no." Ginny whispered to herself. It sounded almost as if she was praying for her eyes to deceive her. Unfortunately, they both knew the truth. The stone had fallen out of the side of Gryffindor Tower, the first in what was sure to be many. While that section of the castle was usually empty during the day, one place remained incredibly populated at the moment: the Gryffindor Common Room where almost the entire House had been locked inside for their protection.

Harry turned to Ginny, his heart already racing.

"Get Minerva." Harry said simply before turning to sprint up the closet set of stairs. As Harry ran up the seven flights of stairs that would take him to his Common Room, Harry could feel some sort of rumble in the castle as if the very walls themselves were starting to become unsettled. He also knew somewhere deep down that this was the last time he would ever climb these stairs. This part of the castle was by far the part he was most familiar with, having climbed up and down those stairs two or three times a day for six years.

By the time that Harry reached the Fat Lady, he could see the worry on her face.

"Thank Merlin." she said, relief and fear simultaneously present on her face. "I can feel it. I can feel it coming."

"Then open up." Harry ordered. "I need in there."

"Be quick." The Fat Lady responded as the portrait swung open and Harry returned to the Gryffindor Common Room one last time. The students had been packed inside for the better part of two days. As a result, the place was a bit of a mess with parchment and cloaks tossed all over and more games of Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap going simultaneously than he had ever seen before.

Unfortunately, none of that would matter in a few moments.

"The tower is getting ready to come down." Harry said, his voice clipping along as fast as he could get his tongue to move while still being understood. "You are to go to the Potions dungeons and await further instructions."

Harry had expected everyone to instantly scramble out of the room. Instead, they stared at Harry like he was speaking Mermish.

"Move!" Harry shouted as he cracked the end of his wand like a whip. Immediately, everyone started sprinting for the door. A few students attempted to race for the dormitories but Harry was able to quickly divert them back to the door, the rumbling under his feet growing larger with every passing moment.

Harry followed the last student back out of the portrait. However, just as he did that, he heard one of the students say: "Professor, Matthew Hooper! He was sleeping in the dorm!"

"What year is he?" Harry asked.

"First!" the student replied.

"I'll get him. The rest of you get out of here!" Harry shouted to their retreating forms as Harry turned and marched back through the portrait, racing up the stairs to the first year dormitory, which just so happened to be the same dormitory where Harry had lived for his first six years at Hogwarts and where he had retreated after the Battle of Hogwarts.

In the very same bed slept Matthew Hooper, who was somehow still asleep despite the fact that the tower around Harry was quite literally shaking. Without bothering to wake the boy, Harry scooped him in his arms and turned to race down the stairs. Just as he managed to leave the room, Harry heard a horrifying crack and in that moment, he knew that the tower was finally starting to come down.

Without looking back, Harry sprinted across the Common Room, Matthew stirring in his arms as he broke through the portrait, tripping over the frame like Neville had done so many times over the years. Harry fell, Matthew tumbling out of his arms and onto the floor in front of him, startling him from his sleep finally.

As Harry fell, he could feel the ground beneath him start to crack. In that moment, instinct took over as Harry pushed himself back to his feet in a single motion before grabbing Matthew and sprinting to the end of the hall. Just as Harry reached safety, he turned back with just enough time to see The Fat Lady wave to him sadly as the tower and a fair section of the hallway attached crumbled to the ground, leaving a massive hole to the open world where Gryffindor Tower used to be.

Harry stood in complete shock. While he had known that the castle would eventually fall, most of the areas that had been damaged thus far had affected the school in general. But this, the final moments and fall of Gryffindor Tower, felt oddly personal as if the school had decided to punish him for something. Knowing that the castle was going to fall was one thing. But knowing that the place where Harry, Ron and Hermione had hatched so many plans, where Ginny had first kissed him, and where all four of them had spent countless hours simply being children was now gone was something else entirely. It was as if a piece of his heart had been torn away, a wound left open and bleeding for all to see.

Harry took Matthew by the hand and lead him down to the Potions dungeon where the rest of his House, now homeless, was waiting for more information. But Harry would not be the one to give it to them. The moment he dropped off the boy, Harry left the room, turned the corner, marched far enough down the hall so he could be certain that no one could hear him and then collapsed to the floor, tears cascading down his face as he sobbed into his knees. While he knew that there was no shame in the tears that he shed, he also knew that there were those that were that were looking to him for strength, a strength that he did not feel at the moment.

How long Harry was there, he couldn't be certain. However, he was aware of the fact that at some point, someone had joined him, placing a gentle hand on his knee for support. When Harry finally felt brave enough to look, he was surprised to see that it was Daphne.

"Hi." she said softly. She was smiling at Harry but the same sad smile that everyone gave to someone who recently had a relative pass away. She meant it but she knew that it didn't fix anything.

"Hey." Harry replied, his breathing uneven as he buried his head back into his knees. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, first, my Common Room is in the dungeons and I was trying to catch a bit of a nap when I was told that there was going to be a rather large influx of Gryffindors in the dungeons." Daphne replied, her hand now gently rubbing his back. "Were you there when it happened?"

Harry nodded. "If Ginny and I hadn't been there, we might have lost the whole House along with the tower."

"Well, at least you saved the important part, right?"

"Right." Harry said. Although he knew that she was right, there was a dark part of Harry's heart that couldn't help but still hurt over the loss of the first place that had ever made him feel like he had a home.

If that had been the only casualty, Harry might have been able to stand it. But when the news passed down that the ceiling to the Great Hall had also collapsed, taking two students and Professor Calhoun with it, Harry's heart sank so far that he wondered how they could ever recover from this. It was a level of grief that Harry had only been able to associate with the deaths of Sirius, Fred and Dumbledore.

But in a way, Harry supposed that made a certain amount of sense. Just as much as any person, Hogwarts itself had been a character in his life from the beginning of his time there. Watching it fall down, brick by brick, over the last couple of months had been hard. Knowing that its end was drawing nearer with every passing minute was excruciating.

Daphne remained with Harry for the next half hour, simply sitting with him as he processed exactly how he felt. While he never said it directly, he thought that she knew just how much he appreciated her willingness to help him without expecting him to do a lot of talking, something that Harry occasionally found maddening.

Harry pressed on. He knew that if they survived, there would be a day to mourn the loss of students and professors and the castle alike. Until then, they had work to do. All of the students were moved to the dungeons after the fall of Gryffindor Tower. One of the secret passages that Harry had never bothered using during his time at Hogwarts (because of the fact that its location was also known by Argus Filch) was in the dungeons, located about as far from the Entrance Hall as possible.

Where exactly the passage went, Harry couldn't be certain. But after spending nearly six hours in it, Harry could be relatively certain that it was structurally intact and could be used to escape the dungeons if the castle were to come down around them. As long as the students stayed away from the entrance to the dungeons, Harry assumed that they would survive the collapse and would be able to escape that way.

That night, the students were given cots and separated into small rooms throughout the dungeons with staff and older students patrolling the corridors. At the same time, another team of students and staff were defending the barrier around the castle which, after an entire day of bombardment, was already starting to show some wear and tear. During the night, when the students had gone to sleep and only a select few remained awake, you could hear the sound of the spells beating in on the shield from almost anywhere in the castle, the rhythmic thud of spells hitting the barrier only occasionally interrupted by the deflection of one of the spells.

Sometime in the darkest part of the evening, Harry was walking between the cots when he noticed just how many of them weren't sleeping. In fact, it would have been far easier to count those that were sleep than those that were awake and the predominant look of those that were awake was fear. They were all afraid and rightfully so. For almost all of these students, they had suffered through something like this just over a year earlier.

But even then, that had been just one night and most of them had been escorted from the castle before the real fighting had begun. They were now starting their third day in this situation and while the first day, the Death Eaters initial assault on Hogsmeade, hadn't been particularly harrowing for anyone inside the castle, it was clear that the last twenty four hours had clearly affected most of the student population.

It was in moments like these that Harry was reminded how different he was from most people his age. Even some of the older students were struggling to keep from panicking, convinced as they were that they were going to be killed at any minute. While Harry was certainly not doing well, panicking wasn't even a thought that Harry had considered. But then, he had far more experience in this kind of situation, more than anyone else in the castle and definitely more than anyone his age had any right to have.

But that experience was a blessing as well as a curse. Harry knew that before the end, his experience would be invaluable.

Breakfast was brought to the students in the dungeons the following morning, made by the house elves before they were ordered to join the students in the dungeons as well. While they were not particularly happy that they had been ordered to "abandon their posts," they followed Minerva's orders to the letter.

The third day of the siege saw one surprising result: the damage wrought by Ethan Webb and Elizabeth Carlisle. In the night, both had been assigned to the team defending the barrier. While the others had focused on deflecting the spells away from the wall, both Ethan and Elizabeth, having largely adopted Harry's creativity in battle as a way of life, decided that taking out as many Death Eaters as possible was the proper way to go.

According to Bill, between the two of them, they took out over twenty Death Eaters, including at least fourteen with a single well placed Exploding Curse by Elizabeth. Considering that spell took a lot of power to cast and their target was well over two hundred meters away, it was a miracle shot that seemed to have paid off. Since that time, the Death Eaters had taken to attacking the barrier from much further away.

This meant that while they were safer, their spells were much easier to deflect and far weaker when they hit the barrier. Still, as the staff looked out over the masses of Death Eaters gathered (at one point, Harry had managed to count nearly two hundred of them), they knew that they would eventually have to figure out a way to defeat the Death Eaters, something that seemed like an impossible task considering that more sections of the castle fell with every hour.

As the hours passed and the barrier began to crack even further, Harry could sense the worry in the students and staff growing. They knew what he knew and what everyone else knew. They had no way out. There was no way they would defeat the Death Eaters head on and any chance of escape was based on one tiny path out of the castle to an unknown place. It was possible that it could take them to safety but it was just as likely to take them to danger and the uncertainty of it all was what caused Harry's stomach to ache.

But just as Harry said, in their lowest moment of darkness, just when they were convinced that they were going to be forced to run, a small sliver of light shone through the darkness. For the third time, an envelope appeared on Minerva's desk.

Only this time, it bore the insignia of the Minister of Magic. Harry had been working with the barrier defenders when Minerva, followed by Ginny and Hermione, shoved the paper in his hands.

 _Minerva,_

 _After two whole days, we have finally restored the Ministry and access to the Floo Network, although we have elected not to turn the Floos back on just yet. I know that the Death Eaters have surrounded the castle. Unfortunately, the remaining force of Aurors is not enough to take on the Death Eaters. As of yet, I have heard nothing from the garrison stationed at Hogwarts and it is my expectation that they are all dead._

 _Most of the Aurors who were present at the Ministry during the Death Eaters' attack were killed in action, leaving only a small force of Aurors left._

 _If these Aurors could be added to an already existing force, we may be able to achieve something to fix your problem._

 _Kingsley_

Immediately, Harry smiled.

"Did you catch it?" Harry asked.

"Catch what?" Hermione said.

" _An already existing force._ " Harry said, parroting Kingsley's words. "The Order of the Phoenix. Almost every member of the Order is still out there. If we could get word out-"

"We can't get word out, Harry." Ginny said. "We've been trying for days."

Harry held up the letter in his hand. "Then how did Kingsley get this message to us?"

All three women stopped, their eyes fixed on the parchment.

"The Death Eaters must have cancelled the ward." Minerva said. "It's the only possible explanation."

"They must have needed to get messages out." Ginny added. "Their army is so large that it's faster to send them by owl than to walk to the other end of the encampment."

"I don't care what the reason is." Harry replied. "This is the opening we've needed. Now, we just need something that we can do to take advantage of it."

However, before they could get around to that, Professor Sprout ran into the room, barely stopping in time before she ran over Hermione.

"Pomona, what is it?" Minerva asked as the Herbology professor tried to catch her breath.

"Death Eater….coming through the Honeydukes tunnel."

"Just one?" Harry asked urgently.

"Not sure. The alarm just went off." Pomona said. Instantly, Harry sprinted from the office and raced down the stairs towards the tunnel entrance behind the statue of the one-eyed witch. Harry waved his wand and the hatch opened up. It was impossibly small compared to the last time Harry had attempted to use this entrance.

Thankfully, Harry had no intention of using it. Instead, he pointed his wand down the length of the tunnel.

" _Incendio!"_

While he couldn't see the flames, he could feel the heat on his hand and see the flash of light associated with them. What he didn't hear was the sound of someone being caught on fire. Harry waited another few minutes before trying again to no avail.

However, the third time Harry tried that same trick, he instantly heard the screams of the Death Eater who had been trying to sneak in that way. Once he heard the screams, Harry cast another spell.

" _Confringo!"_

A large plume of smoke billowed from the entrance, a combination of dust and ash, that caused everyone in the hallway to cough as the hall filled with particles of dirt that floated in the air, momentarily blotting out the sun. When his vision finally cleared up, Harry stuck his head inside the tunnel. Sure enough, the way was blocked and the Death Eater likely buried under the pile of rubble.

Harry turned and gave the small patrol of students, who had stood watching Harry blow up the tunnel, the specific locations and instructions on the other unguarded entrances, ordering them to do the same to them. Having done that, Harry was on his way back to Minerva's office when he ran into her coming towards him, meeting her with Ginny and Hermione on the top of the Grand Staircase.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"The barrier." Minerva said. "It's failing."

Minerva then raced down the stairs and into the Courtyard where they were able to look up and see the cracked barrier. While it still held, Harry knew that they were looking at only a few hours before it finally fell.

"Could we restore it?" Harry asked.

Minerva shook her head. "The spell requires the magic of the school to charge it. That's why it only needs to be cast once. I doubt that the castle has enough magic left in it to do it again."

"That's likely part of the reason why it's falling so quickly in the first place."

The barrier, holes now wider than the wings of a hippogriff, was the only thing that stood between them and a hoard of Death Eaters that would surely wipe them out if it fell. Their time was running out and with it, any chance of saving the school's population.

They needed a plan and they needed one desperately. The staff met in the Entrance Hall, the sound of the spells hitting the barrier now like the bang of a drum, as they discussed their options. Kingsley had restored the Floo Network, which would allow them to slowly get the students out.

But, they couldn't risk sending too many students at any one time. If Dolohov still had a spy within the Ministry, he would surely see the students coming through the Floo. If that happened, there was no doubt that Dolohov would attack the castle with his full might, which would almost immediately be the end. They had been lucky in that regard. Dolohov truly did not seem interested in killing the whole castle.

He just wanted Harry and control of Hogwarts. That restraint was something that Harry hoped they could use against him, if only they found a proper way to do so.

While Harry had been dealing with the secret passages, Minerva and Hermione had been using that time to reach out. Minerva had contacted Arthur and Molly while Hermione had activated her DA coin. Each of them had asked for any volunteers to go to the Burrow.

Again, they couldn't send too many messages at any given time, fearful they were that the Death Eaters would attack if they knew that they could send messages.

They needed time. Time to get the students out. Time to let the Order and the DA organize. Unfortunately, that was one thing that they were sure not to get. As the hour grew later, the castle itself seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Already, Bill and Minerva had been forced to restore a wall using sheer magical force to do so. Without that wall, a massive section of the school may have come down, creating a massive breach in the school's exterior.

There was no doubt about it. Hogwarts had seen its last days.

They needed more time. But they were simply out of it. When the staff meeting ended with no real plan, Harry wondered for the first time if this might truly be the end of all of them. Had they survived Voldemort only to be defeated by a knockoff version? Had Harry sacrificed himself in the Forest only to die, buried in the rubble of the castle?

That evening, just after dinner, Harry stood on the balcony of the Headmistress's Office and pondered exactly how they were going to get out of this mess. If things had looked bad in the past, this was about as hopeless as things could get.

Suddenly, Harry had the sensation that he was being watched. Turning around, Harry saw a group of people standing behind him: Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Parvati. All stood there, smiling at him.

"Hullo." Harry said darkly. "Come to say goodbye?"

"We're not saying goodbye to anyone." Luna said firmly. "We've come to help you figure out how we're going to get out of this mess."

"There's only one way out." Harry said. "I give myself up. We don't have time for any other plan to work."

Ginny stepped forward, a firm look in her eye, when suddenly, her hand flashed up, smacking Harry firmly on the side of the head.

"What the hell was that for?" Harry asked as he held the spot where she had hit him.

"For suggesting that you give yourself up, even after McGonagall told you not to." Ginny replied. "Now, you know that there's a way out of this. We all know but we just can't see it."

"If we keep working on it, maybe we can figure it out." Parvati said.

"I know that we can figure it out." Hermione added. "We've figured out bigger problems than this. Hell, we broke into Gringotts!"

"And the Ministry of Magic." Ginny reminded him. "Twice."

"It's so close." Harry admitted. "It's like it's just been staring me in the eye. I can see it but none of the pieces seem to quite fit."

"Why not?" Hermione asked. "What about it doesn't fit?"

"I can't figure out how we can do anything more than escape." Harry said. "We can get everyone out but there's no way we can take Dolohov down."

"Maybe we need to accept that's not an option today?" Luna suggested.

"No." Harry growled. "Dolohov goes down."

"But if it's not possible-"

"It's possible." Harry said, pounding his hand on the balcony railing. "I know it's possible. We did some damage to his numbers last night. They'll still outnumber us but if we could just surprise him in some way."

"Like an ambush?" Ginny said.

"Exactly like an ambush." Harry replied.

"That might work." Hermione admitted.

"I like the idea but doesn't an ambush typically require some bait?" Luna asked.

Bait. That was the final piece, the one that suddenly completed the puzzle in Harry's mind. Immediately, Harry raced to Minerva's desk, grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment before scribbling out a note to Kingsley, which he then threw into the fireplace, sending the message to Kingsley through the connected Floo of the Minister's office and the Headmaster's Office.

"What was that?" Hermione asked.

"Our plan." Harry said, a sense of strength in his voice. "Now, we have until the barrier falls to get things in place. Once the barrier falls, we go. Now, follow me."

Harry sprinted from the Headmistress's Office, racing down the stairs two at a time (three in the instance of the disappearing step) and reaching the Entrance Hall where the rest of the staff were standing, watching as the barrier slowly cracked and broke away.

"I've got it!" Harry said. "I've figured it out!"

"Figured what out?" Minerva asked.

"I figured out how we get the students out _and_ take down Dolohov."

"You did? How?" Bill asked with anticipation. That same look was in the eyes of everyone, no matter their age or experience level. Much like Harry had just a few moments earlier, they had been convinced that they were going to die along with their students and the castle would fall with them. Now, Harry looked around the room and saw that they were all ready to go, ready to fight one last time to save the real Hogwarts: its people.

"OK, here's the plan."


	41. Forty-One

Harry stood in front of the large oak doors in the Entrance Hall, the only thing that separated him and the wall of Death Eaters waiting outside. To his immediate right stood Ginny with Hermione, Viktor and Minerva beyond her and on his left stood Luna and Parvati with Bill and Fleur directly behind him.

Harry knew that they were all nervous. He could see it on their faces. The plan that Harry created was a risky one, one that would rely on several pieces of the plan falling at the exactly the right time. It was one of the riskiest things that Harry had ever done.

Outside the window and through the cracks in the walls that had grown even worse in the night, Harry could see the shield. It seemed like every Death Eater beyond it was finally attacking at once, Dolohov's patience finally having expired. Within just a few minutes, it would fall and their plan would go into action.

Harry turned around to address the small group that was gathered there.

"Thank you for trusting me." Harry said. "Thank you for being my friends and my family. I don't know what I would have ever done without you."

"Don't talk like that." Ginny said, grabbing the front of Harry's jacket to pull him close before wrapping her arms around him. "You are coming back to us."

"I hope so." Harry said, leaning Ginny's face up to his so that he could kiss her gently. "If something happens-"

"Nothing is going to happen." Ginny said firmly.

"If something happens," Harry repeated sweetly, "I know that you will do great things. Live a full life. Move on."

"I've been in love with you since I was ten years old." Ginny replied. "How am I supposed to move on?"

"You'll figure it out." Harry said with a smirk. Then, he reached out and shook Bill and Fleur's hands. Neither said anything. They simply held their firm gaze as Harry could tell that they were trying to remain strong for him. Harry turned to Luna and Parvati, hugging each of them briefly.

Once he was finally able to convince Luna to let go, Harry took Viktor's outstretched hand and shook it vigorously.

"Good luck, Harry. Ve have fatih in you."

"Thanks, Viktor." Harry said as he turned to Minerva.

"I expect you back at work next Monday." Minerva said, tears welling up in her eyes.

"That might be difficult, boss."

"Yes, well you've done more difficult things in the past." Minerva said sadly before she reached up with both hands, placing one on either side of his face. "Be strong and come back to us."

"I will do my best."

At that, Minerva smiled so wide that her teeth were visible. "You have never done anything less."

With that, there was just one more person to say goodbye to and he knew that it would likely be the hardest. While Harry may have resumed his relationship with Ginny, there was still no question that Hermione was likely the most important person in his life. For years, she had been there by his side, her faith in him never wavering.

When Harry had told Hermione about the plan, she had waited until everyone had finally left the room before she expressed her concern.

"You'll be going alone."

Harry had forced himself to restrain the laugh that he nearly let out, not wanting to hurt her feelings. Instead, Harry had walked up to her, placed both hands on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.

"Hermione Jean Granger, you have taught me more than any professor I've ever had at this school. Even if I walk out of that door by myself, I am never alone. I have years of experiences with you and with Ron to keep me company, right here." he said, pointing to his own chest.

Now, Harry looked at Hermione, his most loyal friend. Unlike Minerva, Hermione's face was dry. She looked at Harry with the same familiar look she used when she scanned a textbook, begging it to give her the information she so desired.

Hermione walked up to Harry and placed a kiss on his cheek before wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I have never been more proud to call you my friend." Hermione whispered in his ear. If there had ever been a moment in which Harry considered abandoning his plan and simply taking his friends and running from the school, that was it.

But Harry knew better. He knew that with the plan in place, he had the opportunity to take down the Death Eaters and save the students all in one single action. All he had to do was be brave enough to do it.

"You know what to do?" Harry asked.

"Yes." Hermione replied. "We won't let you down."

"It's you. Of course you won't." Harry said with a smile. Turning around, Harry saw that Ginny once again blocked him from the front entrance.

"I have to get going." Harry said as he walked towards her.

"I know." Ginny replied. "But I want you to promise me something."

"Anything."

"I want you to promise that, no matter what happens out there, you will do whatever it takes to come back to me. If that means killing every single Death Eater between you and me, do it. If it means letting Dolohov go, you let him go."

"You know I can't do that." Harry said. "But I will do everything that I possibly can to come back. You know that, too. We've got a second chance and I absolutely plan to take advantage of that."

"I can accept that." Ginny said before she grabbed the back of Harry's neck, pulling his lips down to hers. For just a few moments, Harry let his fear and his doubt disappear. For a few moments, all he focused on was the warm sensation of Ginny's lips on his.

How they moved.

How her hands gripped the outline of his jaw.

Finally, he felt her push him away and when she did, he saw the tears that she had been fighting back had finally broken through her defenses.

"Take them down." Ginny growled. This was not a question.

This was an order.

Harry bowed slightly towards her.

"Yes, ma'am."

Harry turned around and faced the gate, its large oak doors stretching up so high that Harry had to arch his back to see the top. Still, even something that large and that strong was bound to be broken at some point.

"I'm ready." Harry whispered. As he spoke, a team of students opened the doors, allowing Harry, his arms bound in front of him, to walk through the door. The sun, just barely creeping over the top of the Forest in the distance, blinded him momentarily as he stepped out of the castle. When his vision was restored, he saw the line of Death Eaters, all with their wands drawn, sending spell after spell at the barrier.

Harry heard the doors close behind him and in that moment, he knew that there was no turning back. Instead, he walked out until he was just inches from the barrier. As he walked, the sound of the spells hitting the barrier slowed and then eventually came to a complete stop as Harry stopped moving.

"I want to talk to Antonin Dolohov." Harry said firmly. Almost immediately, there was a flurry of action as the Death Eaters crowded around where Harry stood, leaving a path in the middle. Down that path, dressed in a black robe not entirely dissimilar from the kind that Riddle had worn, was Antonin Dolohov.

As he passed, each of the Death Eaters dropped to a knee, almost as if he was some sort of deity to be worshipped. Dolohov was silent as he walked forward, his eyes locked on Harry's, until he stopped only a foot or two away from Harry, the red barrier the only thing separating them.

"It is good to see you, Harry."

"I wish I could say the same." Harry said. Behind Dolohov, not a single Death Eater had dared to stand. "I see that you've trained your dogs well."

"They've come to see the light. They know that I am destined for great things and rather than fight me, they choose to bask in my glory."

"The glory of a fraud." Harry countered softly so that his voice did not carry much further than Dolohov's ears. "The glory of someone who begged Voldemort for mercy on more than one occasion I am sure."

If Dolohov was bothered, he didn't seem to show it.

"You have quite the mouth for someone who is giving themselves up." Dolohov said, motioning towards his bindings.

"I never begged Riddle for mercy." Harry replied, ignoring Dolohov. "I don't have any respect for anyone who does and then spends the next year pretending their some sort of fucking god."

"So says the man who has returned from the grave twice and is worshipped by almost everyone else."

"I never asked for that."

"And I never asked for this." Dolohov replied, waving his hands to those around him.

"Paying them certainly helps."

"No one is getting paid. Sure, I recruited some of them in the beginning using Lucius's hidden fortune. But that ran out months ago. Yet, they stay."

"Fear is a powerful motivator."

"You mistake me for my predecessor." Dolohov smirked. "I do not torture them, nor do I kill those who displease me. While we share the name of the Death Eaters, we are only bound to each other by the knowledge that we, as those who can do Magic, are simply better than those that cannot. We should not be forced to hide from Muggles and we should not be forced to take the cubs of those who have no magical heritage."

"You do know that every single Muggleborn witch or wizard comes from a magical person at some point, right?" Harry replied. "Whether it was their grandfather or their great-grandmother or even their great-great-great-grandfather, there is magic in their veins."

"But not in their culture." Dolohov replied. "I do not care where they got their abilities. I don't believe that they somehow stole these abilities like that idiot Dolores Umbridge seemed to suggest. I care that they were born into a society of people that forced us into hiding, simply because there are more of them than there are us."

"And that's the fault of people who weren't born when that happened?" said Harry. "The Statue of Secrecy is hundreds of years old. It's not the fault of the Muggles who live now."

"And yet they reap its benefits."

"Benefits they aren't even aware of!"

"Does that matter? They subdue us, they belittle us. They rule the world and are too blind to see an entirely magical world only inches from their noses and yet, we are supposed to defer to them. Why? In what world does the weaker ever survive the stronger?"

"So your plan is to take over the magical world and then destroy the Muggles?"

"No. We will not destroy them." Dolohov replied. "Muggles, while largely useless, do have some value in large numbers. No, they will be our workforce."

"Slaves. You mean slaves."

"If that is the word you prefer."

"I prefer the right one." Harry snapped. "Those are people! You can't just use them like that!"

"I CAN DO WHAT I WISH!" Dolohov shouted, the spit from his mouth sizzling against the barrier. "You have lost this day and there are no others who would dare stand against me! We will take this castle and this land and we will rise up against those pathetic Muggles who conquered us so long ago and we will show them what real power is."

Harry couldn't help himself any longer. Harry bent over, careful not to touch the barrier, and laughed. He laughed full and hearty, the kind of laugh that you can feel in your toes and that leaves you light-headed afterwards.

"What are you laughing at!?" Dolohov screamed until Harry suddenly stop, a look of cold fury on his face.

"Are you honestly stupid enough to think that I would just hand myself over?" Harry asked.

"You have no other choice."

"I have plenty of choices." Harry said. "I have choices because I have allies. I have others that will support me. You have soldiers. But are they real soldiers? Most of them didn't fight at the Battle of Hogwarts. They've spent the last year training and raiding the homes of Ministry officials. But if they were ever caught in a real battle, what would they do?"

"Do you intend to provide them with such a battle?" Dolohov said, now laughing as well. "With what army?"

"No army." Harry said. "Just some people who share my belief. You see, you have a few weaknesses that were all too easy to exploit. First, you desperately want this castle. You want what it signifies. So you refused to attack it the way that you should have. Second, you believed that simply because you wipe out the Ministry, you eliminated any chance of reinforcement to the castle. Third, you believed that your spy in the Ministry, a spy that the Minister of Magic had sussed out, by the way, would catch us in the act if we tried to escape with the Ministry's help in any way."

"You believed that since we loved the castle too, we would give up before it was taken down. Unfortunately, there's only one problem with that. This castle is our home because of all the good that it has done, the family it has provided, the love that started right here within these walls. While I do love this castle, it is the people of the castle that make it what it is and if our options were to have the castle fall or give it to you, then we'll choose to let it fall."

"You don't have that option." Dolohov said. "The castle is mine."

"Unfortunately for you, it isn't." Harry said as he pulled on his bindings. Almost immediately, they pulled free, revealing that Harry had full access to his hands the entire time. Seconds later, Harry drew his wand and held it at his side. Dolohov took only a moment to realize what this meant: Harry wasn't giving himself up.

He also wasn't going to let Dolohov have the castle.

"The castle has been deteriorating for months. Over the last few hours, we've been working to destabilize it even further, using wards and charms to keep the castle upright. When this barrier falls, the wards will fail and the castle will fall with it."

Harry watched as Dolohov absorbed this news. At first, he tried to keep his composure but the longer he ruminated on this information, the more his skin turned red and his eyes crackled with hate.

"You would refuse me what is rightfully mine?"

"Hogwarts doesn't belong to anyone." Harry said. "Most definitely not to you."

Harry took a few steps back from the barrier and raised his wand.

"If you destroy that barrier, I will kill you."

"We'll see."

Harry looked back at the castle one last time. As much as it destroyed Harry to do this, he believed what he had said. There is no way that Harry would accept Dolohov taking control of the castle.

That meant there was only one way out.

He turned back towards the barrier and look down at the end of his wand.

" _CONFRINGO!"_

A blast of red light struck the barrier. Initially, it seemed to have done nothing but as time passed, the barrier seemed to crack into a million tiny pieces before eventually falling like red rain from the sky. As the barrier fell, Harry could hear the sounds of rock and brick slipping and sliding, boulders falling from the ceilings as the castle slowly seemed to singing into the ground.

The towers fell in on themselves, the walls collapsed and the ceiling dropped. Within just a few seconds, the proud castle that had stood for a thousand years had begun to truly fall. By the time it was done, Harry was certain that there would be nothing left of the castle but rock and dust.

This was the distraction that Harry had needed and also the sign for part two of the plan to begin. As the Death Eaters, overwhelmed by what they had saw, were distracted, the members of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army that had gathered at the Burrow in the night sneaked out of the Forest, standing on the far side of the Death Eaters.

"You...what have you done?" Dolohov said, his wand now aimed directly at Harry.

"You won't ever have it." Harry growled, his wand matching Dolohov's. "The Floo Network was restored last night. In the night, The Minister of Magic returned to the Ministry and personally restored the connection to Hogwarts. Every single fireplace in the castle was suddenly a way out. So, while I've been out here talking to you, every student in the school managed to get out in just a few minutes. They're all at the Ministry of Magic."

Dolohov seemed not to hear Harry, his eyes were focused on the castle, now only half standing as more bricks seemed to fall from the roof, colliding with the floor below.

"How dare you." Dolohov whispered. "What gives you the right? What gives you the right to tear this place down?"

"What gives you the right to take it?" Harry countered, his wand twitching in his hand. "You have no right. You wanted the castle and I knew that I would never allow that to happen."

"You had no right. None!" Dolohov shouted, his wand finally ripping back as he threw the same purplish spell that he had hit Hermione years earlier in the Department of Mysteries. Unfortunately for Dolohov, however, Harry wasn't fifteen years old. His wand moving like the head of cobra, Harry snapped to action, his wand swirling in front of himself. The purple wave of energy slowed in front of Harry until he flicked his wrist, sending the spell back at its castor.

At the same time that Dolohov had attacked, the combined Order and DA attacked, silently launching a volley of Exploding Curses that hit the center of the Death Eater army. Somewhere around fifty curses, all of them with varying levels of intensity, hit the Death Eaters simultaneously, sending dirt and rock and limbs flying in every direction.

With a single surprise attack, the Death Eaters had been reduced by almost half and those that had managed to live through the attack were injured, most of them bleeding heavily. Still, they comprised a strong force. Lead by a Death Eater that Harry didn't recognize, they charged back at the Order, leaving Harry and Dolohov to their own duel.

Silently, Harry and Dolohov each pushed forward, attacking at a dizzying pace. Multiple times, Dolohov attempted his signature spell only to be repelled each time, which clearly frustrated him. On the other side, Harry tried nothing particularly complex. Instead, he simply fired one spell after the other, forcing Dolohov to spend more time defending than he could spend on the offensive.

A particularly nasty Cutting Curse eventually hit Dolohov on his left shoulder, causing blood to spray into the air, covering the left half of Dolohov's face in his own blood. If Harry had been frightened of him before, he would have been terrified. But unlike every other time that Harry had faced the Death Eaters, fear was no longer something that Harry felt. Internally, Harry was certain that there was some part of him that was afraid, some part of him that worried for his safety. But that part had been driven away, overwhelmed by the part of Harry that knew that he could take Dolohov down and wanted nothing more than to end him where he stood.

"You have improved." Dolohov said, wiping the blood that covered his eye as the battle raged around them. To his left, Harry could see Cho and Hermione, back to back, as they proceeded to thrash the Death Eaters surrounding them. In just the few seconds that Harry was able to spare, he saw nearly ten Death Eaters fall while the two of them continued fighting, their wands working almost in tandem as they fired one spell after the other.

On his right, Harry watched as Arthur stood back to back with someone that Harry didn't immediately recognize. Only when the wizard turned to face Harry could he tell that it was none other than Ron, the Auror who was supposed to still be on bed rest. Once Harry knew who it was, Harry was even more astonished by the sheer carnage that Ron was creating, largely on his own.

What Cho and Hermione had been doing was impressive, but it was nothing compared to the number of Death Eaters that fell to Ron's wand. Ron, never the most coordinated person on land, now looked as if he were dancing, his wand flowing through the air to the beat of its caster, never stopping one time as it rolled from one attack to the other, each of them stopping the Death Eater that it struck in one hit. Not a single spell missed its target as Ron cut through well over a dozen Death Eaters on his own, his face calm and focused.

"We all have." Harry said, his wand still at the ready. "We're not children anymore, Antonin."

"That remains to be seen."

With a crack, Dolohov's wand snapped forward and for a moment, Harry could feel his wand start to fall out of his hand. Harry pulled back as hard as he could but he knew that if he didn't do something, whatever Dolohov was doing would eventually result in his wand in Dolohov's hands. Knowing that he couldn't allow that, Harry's mind raced, trying to come up with a way to counter Dolohov's spell.

Then, a remarkably stupid idea crossed his mind, one that he knew would work but also one that would put him in certain danger. Still, Harry stopped resisting and let Dolohov pull.

Only Harry remained attached to his wand, flying through the air at Dolohov, whose eyes grew wide as Harry balled up his fist, throwing a massive punch that hit Dolohov square in the jaw, breaking it and Harry's hand. Screaming in pain, Harry hit the ground and then rolled to his feet, mirroring Dolohov who did the same.

Dolohov, just a bit quicker than Harry, flicked his wand, throwing Harry back to the ground, his wand falling just out of reach.

" _Avada Kedavra!"_

Harry rolled just in time to see the green flash of light hit the ground where he had been laying. Unfortunately, he had been forced to roll the opposite direction of his wand. Rolling back, Harry grabbed his wand and was just about ready to get to his feet when a Stinging Hex his arm, pain rippling through his arm.

He knew that he had frustrated Dolohov, which meant that he also knew what was coming next.

" _Crucio!"_

While it was not the first time that he had ever been subjected to this spell, Harry knew that there was no getting used to the curse as the feeling of a thousand needles pierced his skin, Harry's cries ringing out over the grounds.

Still, Harry fought through the pain and with great effort, raised his wand and threw a shield in front of himself, causing the curse to bounce back at Dolohov. Realizing what had happened, Dolohov managed to dive out of the way as the red light flew just inches away from his ear.

Breathing deeply, the pain still lingering, Harry lay for a moment that he knew he didn't have, his back flat against the ground as he tried to recover. He was tired and he was in pain and he knew that it didn't matter. Above all else, he had to keep moving. Slowly, he regained his footing, barely able to hold himself up as he stood against Dolohov, who was bloodied and bruised and clearly pissed off.

For just a second, while the sounds of the battle around them told them the battle raged on, Harry stared at Dolohov and Dolohov at Harry, both of them waiting for the other to attack. Time froze as they looked each other in the eye. Both of them knew that Harry was tired. Both of them knew that he was overmatched.

But only Harry knew that he could win. Dolohov fought for himself. He fought for his pride and his prejudice. He fought because he believed himself to be better. Not Harry. Harry fought for his friends. He fought for Hermione and Cho, who still waged a two woman war against the world. He fought for Ron and Arthur, his brother and his father, the ones that he had found in place of the family he had never had. He fought for Luna, his strangest friend, and Parvati and Daphne, his newest friends.

He fought for Hogwarts. The castle may be gone but its people stood out on the grounds, wands in hand, fighting for the ideas that great men and women had spent centuries teaching and defending.

He fought for Ginny, the woman he loved, who faced off against Lucius Malfoy, who looked terrified of the mad redhead in front of him.

But more than all of that, Harry fought because he knew it was right. He fought because he knew that there were people who couldn't. He fought for those that had died and those that hadn't yet lived.

He fought because he could.

Harry smiled.

"What is so funny?" Dolohov growled.

"Nothing." Harry said. "Nothing you would understand anyway."

"What? No grandstanding now? No one is watching. You can say whatever you like."

"Someone is always watching." Harry said, images of his loved ones flashing in his mind. "Always."

Dolohov laughed. "I tire of you. If you will not give up, then I will kill you."

"You will try." Harry said, fighting to stand up. Then, without warning, Harry raised his wand and struck, a Banishing Charm glancing off the shield that Dolohov threw in front of it. While it didn't knock Dolohov to his feet, it did throw him off balance. Harry took this opportunity to attack for all it was worth. Another Cutting Curse hit Dolohov in the leg, a Stinging Hex in the stomach, another Banishing Charm to throw him off balance, and an Exploding Curse that hit Dolohov's shield, the sound of it rippling off the pile of rock where Hogwarts used it be, echoing off into the distance.

The sound was so loud that everyone, Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army or Death Eater, stopped what they were doing and looked on at the source of the sound. Harry stood, his body weak but his will strong as Antonin Dolohov laid on the ground just a few feet in front of him, his chest rising and falling, his face covered in his own blood.

Still, the damage that Dolohov had sustained seemed to do nothing to stop him, even if it did slow him down. Crawling to his feet, Dolohov aimed his wand at Harry, another attempt at that same purple wave erupting from it. Harry easily deflected the spell, tossing it to the side, before aiming his wand directly at the center of Dolohov's chest.

" _Depulso!"_

The force of the Banishing Charm hit Dolohov in the center of his chest, throwing him back to the ground. For a moment, Dolohov lay still before he again attempted to climb to his feet. Still on his knees, he threw a spell at Harry, one that he had never seen. The curse curved as it flew at Harry, a wave of black light as if it had been corrupted the moment it had left Dolohov's wand.

Unfortunately for Dolohov, the spell was weak and Harry simply shifted out of the way, letting the curse pass by him before he turned and flicked his wand, lifting Dolohov into the air.

"Give up, Dolohov." Harry said as he noticed all the eyes on him. "Give up and you'll live. If you keep attacking, you will die. According to your mentor, there's no honor in death."

With that, Harry reared back and threw Dolohov, his body landing nearly thirty meters from where Harry had last left him, his body crunching to a halt as he hit the ground. Still, Dolohov would not give up. Dolohov, grunting as he moved, got to one knee, his breathing shallow, a raspy wheeze.

"There is none." Dolohov growled. "There is no honor in death."

"Then give up. Better to spend your days in a cell than in a coffin."

"Is it? To have lost to a halfblood fool like you is better than to have died trying?"

"That's up to you."

"It is not." Dolohov said. "You will have to kill me. Can you do that? Can you kill someone who can barely defend himself? I don't think you can."

"I don't have to kill you."

"Are you sure? If I live, there will always be those that wish for my release."

"Well, that's just too bad for them then." Harry said. "You've lost. You aren't a threat anymore. You can't even stand."

Harry saw that Dolohov was clearly affected by the eyes on him. All the posturing, the lecturing, it was all the result of his desire to be loved, his belief that he was a god among men.

Dolohov, blood flowing freely from a gash on his chest, stood, his wand limply held at his side. Slowly, Dolohov limped towards Harry, who waited to see what Dolohov would do. Finally, when Dolohov was only a few feet away, he tried to lift his arm and failed.

"Give up." Harry repeated, his voice almost pleading. In that moment, Harry realized that he had no desire to murder Dolohov in cold blood, which is what it would amount to if Harry killed him now. There was no chance that Dolohov could do anything to Harry, not with the amount of damage that Harry had done to him.

Now, Harry only hoped that Dolohov would see that and give in.

"No." Dolohov said as he tried to lift his arm again. Once again, he failed. This time, Harry raised his own wand.

" _Expelliarmus!"_

Dolohov's wand flew into the air, directly into Harry's hand. Harry without hesitation took the wand and snapped it in half.

"Give. Up." Harry ordered desperately. "You have lost. Look around, your army is defeated. You have no wand. You have nothing left to fight for."

"I have my honor."

"You have no honor." Harry barked. "You are a pig, a Pureblood monster who is nothing more than a false prophet."

Dolohov said nothing in response. Instead, he marched towards Harry, his hands hanging limply at his side. He walked in silence until he was just a few feet from Harry, close enough that Harry could have reached out and grabbed him if he wanted.

Suddenly, Harry saw a flash of silver as Dolohov's hand reached into a pocket in his robe, pulling out a dagger. But before Harry could even react to the sight of the blade, he felt someone push him out of the way. Harry tripped over his feet and ended up on the ground, looking up as Dolohov plunged the blade into Cho Chang's stomach.

Harry froze as Cho looked down to see the blade, which had been well over six inches long, buried deep inside her. Immediately, Cho collapsed to the ground as Harry flicked his wand towards Dolohov. Suddenly, Dolohov screamed as the hand with the blade fell to the ground, severed by Harry's curse.

Harry rolled over to Cho. Somewhere deep in his mind, Harry heard Hermione and Ron ordering the Order and DA to bring all of the captured Death Eaters to them. He felt someone drag Dolohov away, his cries eventually being silenced by someone Stunning him.

Through it all, Harry could only focus on Cho, her face growing whiter as Harry withdrew the blade from her stomach. As he pulled it out, Harry could feel the dark magic on it. The blade was cursed. Harry, while an experienced practitioner of Defense magic, had never been particularly skilled in Healing magic, especially those spells related to dark magic.

"Where is Pomfrey?" Harry shouted to no one. However, Ginny was the first to answer.

"Stunned by a Death Eater." Ginny said as she kneeled next to Harry. "What can we do?"

"I don't know." Harry said as he tore off his robes, throwing them over the wound, hoping that it would give her just enough time to come up with a plan to save her.

"Harry…" Cho whispered, grabbing onto his wrist, her voice already so weak that Harry was worried that she would die before anyone could get to them.

"Cho, keep quiet." Harry ordered. "You are going to be fine."

"Harry…..we both know…."

"Cho, shut up." Harry said, tears in his eyes. Already, Harry's robe and his hands were covered in blood. He knew. She knew. They all knew. Harry's robe had done absolutely nothing to stop the bleeding. Within just a few moments, she would be gone and there was nothing that Harry could do about it.

Still, he refused to give up.

"Get Bill." Harry growled to Ginny, who nodded and obeyed, even though they both knew that by the time she got her brother and returned, Cho would already been gone. "Now, sit still and be quiet. If you do that, we might have enough time."

"No."

"Be quiet." Harry said as desperation took over. His mind was a jumbled mess as he tried to think of something, anything that would save them.

"Now I know."

"What?"

"I know what I...would do...if someone I cared about was in danger."

Harry's mind returned to their conversation by the lake on the day of the Memorial almost a year earlier. Months later, they were only a few feet from that same spot, except this time, Cho was the one that they would be having the memorial for. Harry's heart broke as she spoke. He never wanted to be the one that would put her in the position to test herself in such a way.

Yet, here they were, Harry holding onto Cho's hands, both of their hands covered in her blood, which still flowed from the wound in her stomach.

"I told you." Harry said through his tears. "I told you that you had it in you."

"Thanks for believing in me." Cho said, her voice almost gone now as she shivered despite the warmth of the morning sun. Suddenly, Cho lurched forward and she seized one final time before falling still. Harry leaned down, putting his head to her chest.

There was still a heartbeat, albeit a faint one. Still, that didn't change anything. Within a few seconds, she would be gone. No matter if he found a way to heal her, he wouldn't have that kind of time.

Then, softly in the distance, Harry heard a sound that he hadn't heard in years. At first, Harry wondered if he might be imagining it. But as the sound happened over and over again, getting closer with every instance, he knew that there was no imagining that sound.

Harry's eyes immediately raised to the sky, scanning back and forth as he looked for the source of the sound.

When Harry finally saw it, he couldn't believe his eyes. But there was no doubting the identity of that cry.

Fawkes, the phoenix that had once belonged to Albus Dumbledore, the one that had cried on the night of Dumbledore's death, had returned to Hogwarts.

The bird immediately spotted Harry and flew down him, landing on the ground next to Harry. Fawkes gave Harry a strong look before he turned to Cho, his tears landing on the site where the knife had struck her.

As each tear dropped, the wound began to close until it looked as if there had never been a wound at all. Just a few seconds after that, Cho snapped away, sitting up in place, her hands immediately going to the place where the wound had been. Cho looked down in amazement before she noticed the bird sitting next to her.

"Isn't that Dumbledore's phoenix?" she asked.

"It was." Harry said before turning to the bird. "But Fawkes always had a soft spot for the castle too."

Fawkes looked much like he had when Harry had first seen him in his second year. His feathers were sparse, most of them having fallen out and the bird looked tired.

"One last time, huh?" Harry asked. Fawkes nodded gently before taking flight. For a few seconds, the phoenix circled Harry and Cho, rising higher and higher into the air before he took off in the direction of the destroyed castle. As he flew, Harry noticed that the Headmaster's Tower had remained standing despite the complete and total destruction of the rest of the castle.

As Fawkes approached the ruins of the castle, a spark flew off the bird and then another until he suddenly caught fire, ash trailing the bird until he disappeared entirely. Harry knew that somewhere, the baby phoenix that would be formed by the ash would find its way. While it would likely never appear at the castle again, Harry could help but think of the castle itself like a phoenix.

Maybe it, like the phoenix, could be reborn into something new as well.

Harry helped Cho to her feet and made sure that he was alright before he found Ron, Ginny and Hermione, who were standing watching over nearly fifty Death Eaters that had been captured, including a Stunned Dolohov.

"Did anyone fix his hand?" Harry asked.

"No." Ginny replied. "We figured it was better if he had something that reminded him of today."

"Seems fair." Harry said as he looked beyond them to the ruins of the castle. "I can't believe it."

"You'll rebuild it." Ron said. "You and McGonagall."

"It won't be the same."

"Maybe that's for the best." Hermione replied. "No tradition, no expectations. You can make it into whatever you want, the two of you."

"It will be more than just us." Harry said. "There are hundreds of people who this place belongs to. They should all have a say in what comes next for Hogwarts."

"That's true but that's also for another day." Ginny said. "For now, we should probably get some Aurors to take these monsters to Azkaban."

"Sounds like a plan." Harry said with a smile. "How many escaped?"

"A few but none that are any real threat." Hermione said. "All the top level Death Eaters were either killed or captured. If everything goes right over the next few days, the Death Eaters should be gone."

"How many did we lose?" Harry asked nervously.

"All of the students got out." Ginny said. "They're comfortably waiting for us at the Ministry."

"What about the Order? The DA?"

"Seems like only a few. Hestia Jones, Professor Sprout, Anthony Goldstein, Dean Thomas and Hannah Abbott." Ron replied. "Quite a few others were injured but those seem to be the only deaths so far."

"How did so many survive?"

"Because it was a good plan and they had a good teacher." Hermione said. "Most of them survived because of the DA."

"That and the few Aurors who had joined from the Ministry." Ron added.

"They did help." Hermione replied.

There were quite a few things over the last few days that had been hard or challenging, none so much as the destruction of the school. Even though their casualties had been small, Harry could already feel the weight of those deaths in his heart. He knew that they had joined him once more because they believed in him and what he was fighting for but that didn't stop him from feeling terrible over the families that would once again be torn apart by the Death Eaters.

But if all of those trials and tribulations ended with the destruction of the Death Eaters, then there was a chance, a small one but still a chance, that it was all worth it in the end.


	42. Epilogue

_April 29, 1999_

Just over twenty-four hours after the collapse of Hogwarts, Harry sat in Courtroom Ten once more. But this time, Harry was pleased to be present with Ron and Ginny on one side and Hermione at the other. Today, the Ministry of Magic would announce two things. First, they would announce the list of Death Eaters who were being added to the Tribunal and against whom they would seek further charges.

The second thing they would announce was the findings against those that had already been tried as voted upon by the Death Eater Tribunal. Once again, it seemed to be a busy morning at the Ministry of Magic and while the proceedings that day were heavily guarded (almost every Hit Wizard had been promoted to a Junior Auror for the occasion), Harry felt no real concern. Every single Death Eater that he had been worried about was now chained to the railing just a few rows down from where he sat.

Chief Warlock Dawlish entered the room in a hurry, clearly ready to get the day's proceedings moving. After a brief chat with Meredith Breckinridge, he took his seat at the top of the hall and called the Wizengamot to order.

"Today, before we begin, I would like to honor those that fought and died to defend Hogwarts and its students against the Death Eaters. Please take a moment of silence to remember those who have been taken from us."

For almost an entire minute, the chamber was silent with the muffled sobs of a few members of the Wizengamot.

"Thank you." Dawlish said when he felt as if an appropriate amount of time had been observed. "Now, I defer to Robert Robinson for the list of new cases brought to this court by the Death Eater Tribunal."

In the front row, Robinson stood and pulled out a large piece of parchment, reading from it as he went.

"The following charges have been brought forward by the Death Eater Tribunal. Liam Selwyn: Murder, Affiliation with a Terrorist Organization, Harming of a Child. Maximum Sentence: 150 years."

"Peter Avery Jr.: Murder, Affiliation with a Terrorist Organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statue of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Blackmail, Attempted Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum Sentence: 220 years."

"Antonin Dolohov: Treason, Murder, Attempted Murder of a Head of State, Operation of a Terrorist Organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statute of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Blackmail. Maximum Sentence: 422 years."

"Gregory Goyle, Jr.: Murder, Affiliation with a Terrorist Organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statute of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Attempted Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum Sentence: 195 years."

"Walden McNair: Murder, Affiliation with a Terrorist Organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statute of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Attempted Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum Sentence: 195 years."

"Theodore Nott Sr.: Murder, Affiliation with a Terrorist Organization, Destruction of Property, Disruption of the Statue of Secrecy, Harming of a Child, Blackmail, Attempted Theft of Ministry Property. Maximum Sentence: 220 years."

From where Harry was sitting, he could look down and see Dolohov where he sat. Not surprisingly, Dolohov wasn't looking at Robinson but back up at Harry, a look of fiery hatred in his eyes. Harry waved mockingly with his right hand before secretly displaying a very rude gesture in his direction, something that got him an elbow in the ribs from Hermione. Dolohov attempted to fight back in his restraints, which had been to be attached to his shoulder due to the hand that Harry had removed.

Harry hoped that he never had to see Dolohov ever again. Unfortunately, Harry would see him one more time: the day of his sentencing where he was convicted to the entirety of his 422 year sentence in Azkaban where he would stay until the day that he died some forty years later.

"Other charges will be brought against newer members of the Death Eaters in coming weeks as the Tribunal discovers more information on them."

Once the Wizengamot went through a few motions to confirm these charges, Robinson stood once more with an entirely separate piece of parchment.

"After a vote of the Death Eater Tribunal, myself abstaining, all previously tried defendants have been found guilty of all crimes of which they have been accused. As such, the Tribunal recommends the following sentences:

Amycus Carrow, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
Gregory Goyle Sr., life imprisonment.  
Samuel Jugson, life imprisonment.  
Rabastan Lestrange, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
Rodolphus Lestrange, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
Lucius Malfoy, who has waived his defense in exchange for leniency for his family, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
William Mulciber Jr, life imprisonment.  
William Mucliber Sr, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
Dolores Umbridge, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.  
Corbin Yaxley, life imprisonment with no opportunity for release."

Dawlish nodded from his perch. "Having heard these recommendations, is there a motion on the floor to accept these sentences?"

"There is." Harry said, raising his hand. "I move that the Wizengamot accepts these recommendations."

"Seconded." Arthur Weasley said from his usual seat in the front.

"Any discussion on the matter?"

Never in the entirety of Harry's time spent in this room had he ever seen the Wizengamot as focused on the matter at hand.

The silence was clearly Dawlish's answer.

"Those in favor?"

Immediately, the hand of every Wizengamot member in the room went up. The Death Eaters were going away and soon, more of their comrades would join them in their cells. Over the next fifty years, there would be over a dozen attempts by the convicts to escape from Azkaban.

Even without the assistance of the Dementors, every attempt would end in failure.

The last of the Death Eaters would eventually be Draco Malfoy but he wouldn't be in England again for many years. That night, Harry stood at a wharf on the English Channel along with a team of Aurors and two of Harry's least favorite people on the planet.

Still, even if Lucius had finally done the right thing and ensured that his family would be safe, Harry had made a promise to ensure they got out of the country safely and he intended to do so.

The ship the Malfoys were taking would first take them to the south of Spain and then on to Greece. Once they were there, they would meet with a colleague of Fleur's father, who would take them into Turkey under an assumed identity. From there, they would be free to go wherever they liked. Because of Lucius' willingness to forego his defense, there were no travel restrictions on Narcissa and Draco, although they would have to report their whereabouts to the British Ministry of Magic for an undisclosed period of time.

"Thank you again, Harry." Narcissa said as they finally reached the point where Harry could no longer follow them. "You have done something that not many in your situation would have considered."

"Well, I'm not most people, am I?"

Narcissa sighed heavily. "I have made a great many mistakes over the years. While I may not share your fondness for Muggles, I do understand that the actions of my family were extreme."

"That's putting it lightly." Harry snapped. "Your family was directly responsible for more death and destruction than any other among the Death Eaters. Without you and your husband, Voldemort's effort to take over the Ministry would have been so much harder. Instead, with Lucius to grease the wheels for him, it took almost no work at all."

"I have no one to blame but myself." Narcissa admitted. "I can only hope I do better in the future."

"See that you do." Harry said as the man operating the ticket booth shouted the last call for boarding. "Don't miss your boat. I can't get you another."

Narcissa nodded softly and then walked past Draco, who stood, fixed in place on the dock, staring at Harry.

"Get on the boat, Malfoy." Harry growled. "Trust me, I don't want to see you any longer either."

However, instead of getting onto the boat, Draco marched towards Harry, stopping just a few inches short of him.

"You were on the tower that night."

There was no question in Harry's mind. He knew exactly which night that Malfoy was talking about.

"I was."

"You knew that I orchestrated Dumbledore's death."

"If we're getting really technical, Dumbledore did it himself. But I was aware that you let the Death Eaters into the castle, yes."

"Why did you vouch for me then?" Draco asked desperately. "My mother, I understand. She never directly attacked you and she lied about you surviving the Killing Curse to get you back to the castle. But I have never done one thing for you."

"No, you haven't." Harry agreed, anger flaring up inside him before he could stop himself. "But, I know other men like your father, my uncle for one. I know what growing up with someone like him could be like. My uncle hates me so I never had anything but resentment for him. But your father, as twisted and broken as he is, he loved you. In the end, I wanted to see what you could do if you had the chance to make your own life, which is something that I did only because I saw you lower your wand. I knew that you wouldn't kill him."

"How?" Draco asked again. "How did you know?"

"You had every opportunity in the world and you were still going to lower your wand." Harry said. "You might not be a good person but you're not a murderer. Now, I'll be interested to see if you can become more than just that."

Draco stood motionless, his eyes locked with Harry's, until he suddenly stuck out his hand, offering it to Harry. For a moment, Harry thought that he must be dreaming. But when he took Draco's hand in his, he knew that it was real.

"Thank you." Malfoy said. "You were right. I am not a good person. But I think I want to try."

Harry would hear many things about what became of Draco Malfoy over the years. While most of the stories were foolish and outlandish, Harry knew that Draco would eventually move to Japan, where he would become a teacher at a small school of magic on the island of Okinawa, under an assumed name, of course.

On occasion, Draco would return to England for business. On those trips, he never saw any of his Slytherin classmates. In fact, almost no one that attended Hogwarts ever saw Draco Malfoy again. But once or twice, he would stop in to the Hog's Head and meet with Harry. They would share stories, teacher to teacher, about what their lives were like.

They would never become friends. Too much had happened over the years for that. But they were colleagues and they respected each other. Considering the depths of their relationship over the years, that was likely all anyone could have ever hoped for.

 _May 1, 1999_

Harry lost count of the number of times that he had walked over something that he had recognized but each time, it punched a small hole in his heart. Ever since he had left, Harry had felt a pull to return to Hogwarts and he was not alone. For hours, Harry, along with many members of the Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore's Army, had been rummaging through the wreckage of what had once been Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, hoping to find something that would remind them of the home they had lost.

Since the early morning, Harry, along with Ginny, Ron and Hermione, had been wandering over the piles of bricks and rocks, looking for anything that might be of value. While they hadn't found much that could be useful, they had found a few things that had brought back old memories. The first thing Harry had found that morning had been the helmet from one of the school's suits of armor.

Harry thought back on how he had originally thought that the heads of the armor had moved when they walked (they did) before his mind shifted to their vaillant defense of the school, almost one year earlier to the day.

About an hour later, Ginny had found an almost entirely intact toilet. Harry knew that shouldn't have brought up any memories but the second he saw it, all he could think of was Fred and George joking about sending Ginny a Hogwarts toilet seat on his first trip on the Hogwarts Express. That memory quickly shifted to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and the trip down into the Chamber of Secrets.

Hermione eventually dug up a series of books. At first glance, they were nothing special until he noticed the name of one: _Moste Potente Potions,_ the book they had used to make the Polyjuice Potion that same year. And beside it? _Magick Moste Evile,_ the only book in the Hogwarts library that had referred Horcruxes when Harry had first learned about them in Dumbledore's office.

But it had been Ron who had been the big winner of the day. Not only had he found and managed to uncover the Fat Lady, who despite having been crushed under tons of rocks, appeared to be in good form, he also found what would likely be the most important find of the day.

They had been wandering through the area where the Entrance Hall had stood when Ron suddenly bolted down a pile of rocks. He had clearly saw something that caught his eye. When Harry had asked what it was, Ron only grunted, not wasting time to answer. Harry followed Ron down the mound, careful not to slip and fall.

That's when Harry saw what Ron had noticed and the moment Harry saw it, his heart filled with a kind of joy that he hadn't felt since he learned that Hogwarts, and magic alongside it, existed in the first place. The rock was immediately remarkable simply because of how out of place it looked among the others, a shiny black against their dull gray. As Ron dug the stone out of the Earth, handling it high, Harry knew that Ron had found it.

He had found The Keystone.

Immediately, Harry had called the others over to see what Ron, completely oblivious to his discovery, had unearthed. When Hermione had suggested that they could use The Keystone to rebuild the castle, however, something changed in Harry's heart. Hogwarts had been his home and the home to so many others over the years. But it had also been a target, the focus of so many evil witches and wizards over the years, even if they never acted upon it until Voldemort himself had attacked the castle.

"We can build something here." Harry said. "But the castle is gone."

"But we could rebuild it!" Ginny said.

"Should we?" Harry asked. "There will always be a place here for students to learn but I think that it's about time that the model of what Hogwarts used to be is left in the past."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

Harry turned and saw Minerva McGonagall standing at the bottom of the pile, a wide smile on her face.

"I knew I made a good choice for Deputy Headmaster." Minerva said. "Hogwarts will certainly come back but I think we can all agree that changes should be made."

"Even good traditions have to end at some point, right?"

"Right."

 _May 2, 1999_

That morning, everyone had returned to the Ministry once more. This time, they had attended a memorial honoring those that had fallen one year earlier at the First Battle of Hogwarts. Unlike the event one year earlier, Harry chose not to speak. Instead, several people who had family members killed during the Battle spoke.

In the light of the recent destruction of the castle, it was a sharp pang as Harry realized, for what must have been the hundredth time over the last few days, that he would never again get to walk the halls of the castle.

Still, he had the future to plan for as did everyone else. To that end, Harry had set the next meeting of the new Order of the Phoenix for that evening. Each invitation included a key, a Portkey that would send them to the conference room at Greymoor Tower. Once they accepted Harry's invitation to join the Order, they would then be allowed to Apparate there at any time.

While their numbers had dwindled slightly over the last few days, almost everyone that had survived the Second Battle of Hogwarts had returned, Augusta Longbottom being the lone holdout. However, Harry couldn't fault her reasons. According to her, she had enough of politics and the world that had taken both her son and her grandson. Once she hosted Neville's memorial, she intended to leave the country and take a tour around the world, mirroring the same journey she had ventured on in the first few months after her graduation from Hogwarts.

Despite Augusta's absence, and the hole her grandson's death had left in Harry's heart, he couldn't deny that he was pleased to see so many people ready to commit to the new Order of the Phoenix.

"Thank you all for coming." Harry said. "I can't tell you how much it means to me that you would put your trust in this organization. You showed it just a few days ago and I hope that we can show that same kind of unity and dedication to each other as we seek to modernize the Ministry of Magic."

"First and foremost, I want to be clear. The only person who has put any money into this project is myself. That money is only being used for Hermione's salary. We will not be handing out any money to any Ministry officials, Wizengamot members or private citizens. What we will be doing is seeking to influence people. We want our world to be a better place through our actions."

"This will initially be done through the Wizengamot. Because of a deal that I struck with the Malfoys, I now control eight seats in the Wizengamot. I will establish a proxy for each one of those seats. However, my goal is that the Wizengamot is an entirely elected body within a few years."

"Entirely elected?" Oliver Wood asked. "Why?"

"There's no reason that the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement should also get to make the laws that they are then to enforce." Harry said, motioning to Meredith, who sat towards the back, having received a personal invitation from Harry. She was one of only two new members to the Order, the other being Daphne Greengrass.

"In that same fashion, we'll make it so that the courts are separated from the Wizengamot." Harry said. "Currently, that body holds too much power over our government. If someone were to use their wealth to influence just a few members, they would hold power over the entire government."

"But, the first item on our agenda is simple. We must pick the successor to Kingsley Shacklebolt."

As expected, a wave of hushed voices started speaking over the room. Immediately, Hermione took this as her opportunity to speak.

"We are not intending to replace him anytime soon." Hermione said. "However, we do need to be prepared for the day that Kingsley decides that he is no longer interested in being Minister of Magic."

"That campaign should likely start now." Harry said. "Kingsley has been Minister of Magic for exactly one year, likely one of the hardest years any Minister has had to face."

"And still come out of it alive anyway." George chortled in the front row.

"Too true." Kingsley said, causing the whole room to laugh.

"We have a lot to work on." Harry said. "We need better elections, better government and better people in our government. All of that will start with you. I believe that with Hermione's guidance, we can point this organization in the right direction and hopefully, we will lead the people there as well."

The plan between Harry and Hermione was relatively simple. Harry would be the money and the ideas half of the operation, while Hermione would be the one who would call the shots and then execute them. For the next hour, she talked to the Order about the specifics of how they would do what they planned to do including detailed explanations of what Harry was certain was incredibly complex legislation, despite how simple she made it sound.

When she was finished, Harry could tell that there was a real energy in the room. People were excited to get started.

"Some of you will be hearing from me soon to discuss seats in the Wizengamot." Harry said. "For those of you that don't receive those seats, keep working. The future of our Ministry starts today and it starts with all of you."

Harry watched as everyone slowly filed their way out of the room. As they went, most talked briefly about their plans for the rest of the day. Almost everyone, it seemed like, was attending some sort of memorial gathering this evening to commemorate the one year anniversary.

But neither Harry or Hermione planned to do that. Instead, both retreated to the top floors of Greymoor Tower where they shared an office. However, just as Harry went to sit at his desk, he noticed that Cho had followed him up the stairs.

"Yes?" Harry said when he noticed her standing there.

"You talk about wanting to replace Kingsley." Cho said. "With whom?"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. They had discussed sharing their list of potential candidates with the group before deciding against it.

"Why do you want to know?" Harry asked.

"Because if you are serious about wanting to open elections to the public for Minister of Magic, you're going to need someone to help get them elected. I want to be that person."

"Aren't you the youngest Deputy Head in your Department's history?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I am." Cho replied. "But I want the opportunity to do more. I know that I can do more. Arthur doesn't need me. It's like he was born to be the Head of International Magical Cooperation. But I know the Ministry and you know it. If there is anyone that can figure out who the Ministry will support, along with who the public would vote for, it's me."

Harry had to agree that she had a point. He had known about her contacts and seen them in action. Cho Chang was certainly one of the most informed person in the Ministry of Magic and that meant that they could use her help when it came to moving forward.

Harry turned to Hermione, who nodded her approval.

"The list is short."

"It should be. Who's on it?"

"Kingsley, should he choose to run again, Meredith Breckinridge, Arthur Weasley, Percy Weasley and John Dawlish."

"You won't get your own people to vote for Dawlish. He's a good Chief Warlock but most people still remember the number of times he was reportedly Stunned by Dumbledore."

"To be fair, almost everyone would fall in that category if given the opportunity." Hermione countered.

"It doesn't matter. Dawlish was the one on the end of his wand." Cho replied. "The Weasleys are good choices, if not particularly special ones."

"Watch yourself."

"You know what I mean. They're both safe picks. No one will fight them but I doubt anyone is jumping for joy at the thought of Arthur Weasley running the country."

"So you like Kingsley and Meredith." Hermione said. "Who else would you put on the list?"

"Assuming the two of you are off the list?"

"For the time being." Harry said.

"Not yet." Hermione chimed in.

"Well, if not the two of you, then Meredith and Kingsley are about the best you can get. The new Head Auror would be an interesting choice but I know that you are going to want to support people that you know."

"You aren't wrong." Harry replied. "Would you help run the campaign for either Kingsley or Meredith?"

"In a heartbeat." Cho fired back.

"Then you'd better hope we can pass Hermione's election bill before the Wizengamot calls for a new election." Harry said. "If that happens, expect an owl from us."

 _June 30, 1999_

The bar was packed as Ginny dragged Harry through the crowd. Thankfully, Harry had reserved a private room for the graduates, meaning that he wouldn't have to deal with the constant attention that Harry had been receiving in the weeks since the Second Battle of Hogwarts. When the couple got to the back room, he was not surprised to see that they had been beaten there by almost everyone else.

Earlier that day, they had sat on the grounds of Hogwarts, a stage in front of the spot where two large oak doors had stood as the entrance to their school, finally graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While they wouldn't be the last class to ever graduate from Hogwarts, they would be the last group to ever attend the original castle. In the time since that fateful day when the walls of the castle had finally come down, Harry and Minerva had been hard at work, discovering exactly what they wanted the future of Hogwarts to look like. While they were still several weeks away from announcing their plans, Harry was excited for what the future had in store.

No classes had been held since the castle had fallen. Instead, all work had been done by correspondence with OWL and NEWT examinations taken on site at the Ministry of Magic. Needless to say, it had been hard to get a feel for teaching when you never saw your students.

While correspondence classes had done been favorable to Harry, it had done wonders for the student body, who had almost certainly been doing most of the work together. The number of answers that Harry had gotten on homework assignments were bore an uncanny resemblance to each other were too numerous to count. Both Harry and Bill knew that they were likely cheating but considering the stress they had all been under, they let it slide.

This time away from classes had also allowed some of Harry's classmates to get to work on starting their careers. Since she wasn't intending to take her NEWTs anyway, Parvati had decided to spend as little time on her classwork as possible. Instead, she had already started work as a intern for the Daily Prophet.

That was until earlier that day when Harry had sent her a letter on behalf of the school asking her to become the next Divination professor at the school. After years of teaching, Sybill Trelawney was finally ready for retirement. While Harry had expected Minerva to simply eliminate the subject altogether, she had instead opted to hire Parvati, assuming that the former Gryffindor taught a more "theoretical" version of the class, which Parvati had immediately agreed to do.

During that same time, the Quibbler had already published two issues, albeit smaller test issues, with a third to come in the next few days. Luna had jumped into the work of running and editing her own magazine with zeal, hiring two writers to cover most of the actual reporting while she worked on the fictional accounts of a father and daughter that seemed remarkably familiar to those that knew Luna Lovegood.

The news that the Order of the Phoenix had resurfaced as a political organization had already been passed around the Ministry of Magic over the last week. Initially, the Order had been looked upon as nothing more than a joke, someone trying to market off the work that Harry and Hermione had done.

When those people learned that the Order was being run by Harry and Hermione however, their tune suddenly changed. Hermione had received more mail in the last week than she had received in her entire life, almost all of them meeting requests with every high ranking official in the Ministry of Magic. Already the legend of Hermione Granger, surefire future Minister of Magic, was growing, bolstered by the support that Harry was able to give her when she took the time to ask for it.

More than once, Harry had already been forced to remind her that eating was essential for human life.

Looking around the room, Harry saw that almost every non-Slytherin graduate had attended the party, organized by Ginny on Harry's behalf. While they had done quite a bit to alleviate the tension between the Houses over the year, Harry supposed that it was too much to expect that everything would fix itself in just one year. Still, Daphne Greengrass had brought a date, another Slytherin, so Harry supposed that counted for something.

"It's so strange to know that we're likely never going to be in the same place again." said the newly minted Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies. Ginny had attended a team tryout for the Harpies just two days earlier. While most people took years to make the team and multiple attempts, Gwenog Jones had instantly recognized Ginny's skill in the air and offered her a contract on the spot. Of course, Ginny would likely spend her first few years on the team as a reserve but she had gotten a contract with the team that she had grown up loving.

Harry had tried to convince her to join Puddlemere United, the team that Harry and George were secretly in negotiations to purchase but to no avail. She had her heart set on being a Harpy and Harry couldn't argue against that.

"It's the way life goes, I expect." Harry said. "It's not like the wizarding world is a huge community though. We'll see everybody again."

"Everybody that we want to see anyway." Ginny replied.

"And some that we don't unfortunately." Harry added.

Suddenly, across the room, Harry saw one of his former classmates, although not one that had graduated with him this year. Taking Ginny by the hand, Harry dragged her across the room to his target, one of the Ministry's newest Senior Aurors.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley." Harry said as he approached his oldest friend. "You didn't graduate from Hogwarts. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, Professor, Angelina and I had heard rumor of a rather large gathering here tonight. Incidentally, it was hosted by one of my closest friends and yet I did not receive an invitation."

"You quit school." Harry countered. "Only those that graduated were invited."

"I got a recent promotion. Doesn't that count?" Ron asked.

"Yes, youngest Senior Auror in the history of the Ministry. Congrats."

"Now, if we only had an entire team of Aurors to work with." Ron mused softly.

"How many are left?"

"Under twenty. The next class out of the Academy proves to be a good size so we should be somewhere closer to fifty by the time some return from medical leave and that class graduates."

"That's still nowhere near enough." Ginny said.

"It's not but it's better than nothing." Ron admitted. "We'll spend the next few years rebuilding the Aurors. Thankfully, while there are still some smaller scale threats out there, it appears as if the biggest threat out there has been taken care of."

"It does appear so, doesn't it?" Harry said. "You know, I can't help but wonder if there aren't more people like Dolohov out there. Someone who is strong enough and charismatic enough to convince hundreds to join his army."

"There's someone out there for certain. But, we now have the advantage."

"How so?" Ginny asked.

"Dolohov started with a working army and was able to build from there. The next person is going to have to start from nothing. When that person starts to climb their way up, we'll be able to stop them before they get the chance to become the next Riddle or the next Dolohov."

For the first time in his entire life, Harry had faith that the Ministry truly could protect them. Even with the near decimation of the Aurors, their win over the Death Eaters had been a monumental one. While there were always a few smaller groups out there to keep an eye on, the fact that they could spend time building up their forces without having to fight in an all out war gave Harry hope for the future of the Ministry of Magic and for England in general.

 _July 21, 1999_

 **Speech given by Harry James Potter, Deputy Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry regarding the state of the school**

"Good morning, everyone. Today, we stand on the former site of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with a few announcements about the future of our storied institution. First, you will all be pleased to hear that classes will resume on this site on September 1st as expected. Where will those classes be held? At a series of new structures built on this site, using material salvaged from the old castle."

"The new Albus Dumbledore Memorial Magical Educational Center for Children will be much smaller than the castle had been. It will house classrooms and study areas for the bulk of our classes as well as a replica of the Great Hall for meals. In addition to the Dumbledore Center, eight small homes will be built on the campus, two representing each House, one for boys, the other for girls. These houses will replace the old Common Room model of the castle and will be the students' home during the week."

"On Friday evenings, however, students will be encouraged to use the specifically designed Floo Stations in their House Homes to return to their families for the weekend. The campus will remain open for those who choose to stay for the weekend but we believe that in this modern day and age, it is important that our students, especially our Muggleborn students, remain connected to their families."

"The final structure built on this site will be the new Academy for Defensive Magic. When it is completed, it will house the Academy for Aurors and Hit Wizards as well as be the prime directive space for students studying for the NEWT examinations in Defense Against the Dark Arts. With the assistance of both the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Department of Magical Education, I will be designing a new curriculum for Defense Against the Dark Arts that more closely aligns with the standards already in place for the Auror Academy. Having the Aurors on site will keep the school protected while also encouraging more cooperation between potential Auror candidates and their future supervisors."

"On a personal note, when this castle came down, I never thought that we would replace it. I admittedly thought that there was a strong chance that the days of Hogwarts were over. But as the weeks have passed since that day, I was proven wrong. There are so many who remember their days at Hogwarts fondly and wish for their children to have a similar experience. As someone who truly found themselves within the walls of that castle, I understand where they are coming from completely. Hogwarts was, and is, my home. This day is important for so many reasons but most importantly: it proves our resilience as a people. We were forced with an impossible choice and still we persevere and soon, we will thrive. Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, it is my distinct pride and honor to declare Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry open for classes once more."

 _August 10, 1999_

Harry locked the door and then walked down the steps to meet his friends on the sidewalk before looking back up at the front of the house. He had never wanted Grimmauld Place. But slowly, the house had become a home to Harry.

"What are you going to do with it?" Hermione asked.

"I'll keep it." Harry said, the few memories that he had of Sirius at the Black Ancestral Home flashing in his mind. "It'll be a useful backup in case something would happen to Greymoor Tower. Plus, it's one of the few things that I have left of Sirius."

"You don't have to leave." Ginny said as she wrapped her arm around his. "You could stay."

"I could. But you all are leaving and I'm not going to stay here alone." Harry replied. "Plus, school starts back up in a few weeks and it doesn't make much sense to commute all the way to London on the weekends."

"Not when you're the bigshot Deputy Headmaster." Ron said mockingly.

"Said the bigshot Senior Auror." Hermione smirked. "Have you packed up your things your old loft yet?"

"We don't move in for another week." Ron said.

"He'll do it in a week, Hermione." Harry added before turning to Ginny. "Are we taking bets on who kills the other first?"

"Oh, it will be Hermione." Ginny said. "They won't last a week living together before she throws him out a window."

When the news had broken that Hermione and Ron were moving in together, the first question on everyone's mind had been the most obvious: were they dating again? The answer, as Hermione had bluntly put it, was "not on your life." A year ago, it would have been impossible to think of the two of them even coexisting in the same room, let alone living with each other.

It was another sign of just how much things had changed in the last year.

Ginny, meanwhile, was moving to Holyhead. She had been Apparating from London to Holyhead every day for weeks. According to Ginny, that kind of Apparition was wearing her out, something that she couldn't afford as she was on the edge of finally receiving some playing time.

Holyhead had been a middle of the pack team that year and there were rumors that Gwenog Jones was starting to consider tinkering with her lineup. For Ginny, this meant the possibility of finally earning some playing time, a thing that Harry knew would open up all sorts of opportunities for her once everyone saw how good she was.

With everyone else leaving Grimmauld Place, Harry had taken the opportunity to purchase a small flat in the newly rebuilt Hogsmeade. The town had suffered massive amounts of damage from the day long siege it had undergone during the Second Battle of Hogwarts. Thankfully, a massive "anonymous" donation had started the process of rebuilding the town. Now, most of the buildings had been restored or rebuilt entirely.

One of the new buildings was an apartment building specifically designed with the professors of Hogwarts in mind. As the sole financial backer of its construction, Harry had asked for only one thing: the penthouse apartment, which had a three hundred and sixty degree view of the grounds of Hogwarts and the mountain ranges beyond it.

As the summer had gone by, Harry's numerous business opportunities had already starting paying dividends. In the Wizengamot, as a direct result of Hermione's machinations as the head of the Order of the Phoenix, election reform had passed, albeit barely, meaning that by the end of the year, a public election would be held for Minister of Magic.

Four years later, another election would be held for every seat in the Wizengamot. All parties would be elected to four year terms and a sixteen year limit would be imposed upon the office of Minister for Magic. Wizengamot members could serve up to twenty years before being forced to take four years off. At that point, they could run for office again, albeit for only an additional twelve years.

Harry knew that it was convoluted but that seemed to be the way that magical people liked their laws.

Harry and George had purchased Puddlemere United and while they hadn't started winning much of anything yet, ticket sales had immediately gone through the roof, giving the club more money to spend on new players than they knew what to do with. The first thing the co-owners had done was fire the previous manager and hire Angelina Johnson, who had been in the midst of a winning season with Wigtown Wanderers (their first in fourteen years) when she had been fired for arguing with their star player, who she had benched prior to a four match winning streak.

Needless to say, with Oliver Wood being the only player they intended to keep, they didn't care who Angelina benched as long as she eventually won matches.

But it had been at Hogwarts where Harry had already felt he had done the most work. True to his word, he had worked with the Ministry, helping to almost completely rewrite the curriculum for Defense Against the Dark Arts. At the same time, he had been granted a consulting position with the Auror Academy, which meant that he would also be used to teach there as well as at the Dumbledore Center.

Harry was so popular as a potential instructor that Minerva had already agreed to hire an assistant professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Do you know what's strange?" Harry said. "We're standing out in public and I'm not flanked by Aurors. I can just go where I want and I don't have to inform someone."

"I guess this is what being an adult feels like." Ginny replied.

"It's more than that." Harry answered. "For all my life, someone has been trying to kill me. It took us nineteen years to finally get rid of all those threats. After nineteen years, I'm finally free to just live my life."

Harry looked at Ron, then Hermione, and then Ginny. All three of them had decided at some point that they were going to climb on board the insane train ride that was Harry's life. For that, and for so many other things, Harry would always be eternally grateful.

On the day that Harry had found out about his past, Harry's first concern had been Voldemort. His second had been the concern that no one would want to associate with him, marked by death as he was. But on his first day at Hogwarts, that fear had disappeared.

It had been Ron first.

Then Hermione.

Then Fred and George and Neville and countless others.

Finally, there had been Ginny. While they hadn't been together long, Harry knew that she was the person that he was destined to be with. In the past, he had never put much stock in the idea of destiny.

But in this case? If it meant spending the rest of his life with Ginny Weasley, he would take it.

All four of them stood and gave the house one last look. While they would return occasionally over the next few decades, it would never again be the kind of refuge like it had been both before and after the war.

Finally, Harry nodded, muttered a short goodbye, and then, without a moment's hesitation, all four of them turned in place, Disapparating and moving on to whatever came next.

None of them could be certain what that would be. But Harry knew that he was ready for another great adventure.

* * *

 **A/N: This is it. Thanks to everyone who has been on this wild ride, reading alongside Harry and his friends. The response that I have gotten to this story has been wonderfully encouraging and I hope that everyone who read this story as enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed reading it. There is the possibility of a follow-up in the coming months, although I can't promise anything at this time.**

 **Thanks again for all of your support!**


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